Even if I'm Different Now
by Monica Moss
Summary: I, Alphonse Elric, wish Brother would accept me, but I'm losing him completely as I start to adopt the term "magic." I've been sharing the research I'm doing at Hogwarts, but even that might not stop Brother from abandoning me. And I think I might die by the time he forgives me, because war is looming ever closer... HP Book 3 and on. FMAB AU.
1. Chapter 1

Part 1

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

I never could perform alchemy, but I could step in and try to pull Brother out of a rebounding human transmutation circle. I shied away from the little black hands that grabbed Brother's leg as though they were trying to tear him away from me, but the little black hands still grabbed me as I rescued Brother.

I didn't know how any of it happened at the time, but I woke up with a hysterical, bleeding brother trying to drag me out the door. I carried Brother over to the Rockbells' myself, but I shrank away from the frightened look that was directed at me when Brother finally opened his eyes.

"Al," he whispered, "I thought I bonded your soul to a suit of armor to save your life. I don't understand why you're still you."

I looked at my fleshy hands. "I don't either, but then I don't understand a lot of things that happen to me. I wish I knew what happened. I'm scared, and I can't feel my body anymore."

Back then, I really didn't understand why strange and unusual things happened around me. I couldn't even begin to guess until over a year later, when a strange woman showed up in Colonel Mustang's office.

* * *

I was following my grumpy brother into Colonel Mustang's office one day when Colonel Mustang greeted us both. "Fullmetal, Alphonse, this is Professor Minerva McGonagall. She says she needs to speak with your family."

Professor McGonagall scowled as Brother said, "I don't see what some weird old lady could need to talk to us about."

"I teach at a school in Scotland," Professor McGonagall said. "I help young people like Alphonse learn to control their special abilities there. I would like to speak to your legal guardian about enrolling Alphonse." Professor McGonagall's eyes landed on me and Brother as she spoke.

"Me?" I asked. "I think Brother's the one with special abilities."

Brother stepped in front of me. "Sorry to break it to you, but we don't have any parents. And we want to know what you really want with Al."

We stood close together and kept our eyes on Professor McGonagall. She pressed her lips more tightly together. "I thought there was indeed an adult in your household: one Major Edward Elric."

She was answered by a snort coming from Colonel Mustang. He casually waved toward Brother. "That is Major Edward Elric, our smallest officer."

Brother responded with his usual type of rant. "Who's so small that your paperwork could be used to build him an entire house?"

Brother earned a snicker from Colonel Mustang, but he caused me to squirm. I looked away, apologizing to Professor McGonagall for Brother's behavior.

Professor McGonagall looked at Brother instead of at me. "Major Elric," she said, "I may not have any authority over you, but I strongly suggest that you keep calm when insulted. It will help you greatly in your career."

She turned on a laughing Colonel Mustang a moment later. "As for you, I thank you for telling me where to find these two, but I must still advise against provoking others."

Professor McGonagall turned back toward me and Brother a moment later, causing Brother to quickly stop laughing at the startled look on Colonel Mustang's face. "Now," she said, "are you two telling me that you have no legal guardian?"

The two of us exchanged looks, Brother's jaw tightening. Brother turned back toward Professor McGonagall. "I'm the older brother. I'm responsible for Al, but I think you should talk to the both of us together."

She frowned. "I find it hard to believe that there is really no adult responsible for you." She glanced over at Colonel Mustang, but he shook his head.

"I claim no responsibility for Alphonse," he said. "He's a civilian." He looked at me over folded hands.

"Well, I guess there's Granny Pinako." I looked between Brother and Professor McGonagall.

Brother crossed his arms, but he said nothing to Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall visibly relaxed. "Very well. I would like to talk to the two of you and this Granny Pinako."

Brother nodded. "Granny Pinako lives out in a village called Risembool. It may take us a while to get there."

So Brother, Professor McGonagall and I went to Risembool, and Professor McGonagall explained that she taught at a magic school that she wanted me to attend.

When we arrived at Risembool, we went to the Rockbells', and Brother and I sat on the living room couch with Granny Pinako as Professor McGonagall gave us a demonstration. She turned herself into a cat, but that didn't really impress Brother.

Brother crossed his arms as he spoke to Professor McGonagall. "So you've been turned into a chimera. That's unfortunate, but it's just alchemy."

Professor McGonagall changed herself back. "I don't understand what you're talking about, Major Elric, but I can assure you that I have not been turned into a chimera. I think perhaps additional demonstrations could clear things up for you."

Brother snorted at her. "Like you could show me and Al some actual magic, you second-rate scam."

I started to protest, but I trailed off as Professor McGonagall flicked her wand at the coffee table and turned it into a pig. "Whoa." I reached my hand out toward the animal, my numb hand brushing against its side.

I heard a sound of irritation beside me and turned my head. I saw Brother's eyes narrowed at me, so I pulled my hand back from the pig and frowned at the ground instead.

I was starting to twiddle my fingers when Brother asked, "Al, how do you think she did that?"

I glanced up at Professor McGonagall. "Well, I guess she could be hiding a Philosopher's Stone somewhere." I glanced back over to Brother.

Brother smirked, holding a hand out toward Professor McGonagall. "Hand it over, you scam!"

"It's a wand," she said. "It won't do you any good. You might see something happen if your brother used it, but even he should really get his own wand for the best results."

I gazed at Brother, who looked as though he were trying to find where Professor McGonagall was hiding a philosopher's stone. "Brother, what if she is using that stick thing as some sort of amplifier?"

Brother flicked his eyes toward Professor McGonagall's wand. "That thing's too narrow to have a stone in it, but I guess we can find out if it itself is an amplifer." He held his hand out toward Professor McGonagall.

She pursed her lips. "I still don't understand what you mean, but I suppose if handling my wand will convince you, then you could each give it a quick wave."

Brother and I both got up and went over to to Professor McGonagall without so much as a signal. She held her wand out to us. "One wave each."

I looked up as Brother was taking the wand. He waved it, resulting only in a swishing sound. "I still say you've got a stone on you," he said to Professor McGonagall as he handed her wand over to me.

"Brother," I whispered as I took it. "I felt something."

Brother responded after a pause. "What did you say?"

"When I took this wand, I felt something." I looked directly at Brother.

His jaw went slack. He looked between Professor McGonagall's wand and my face.

Professor McGonagall interrupted us. "Well, aren't you going to give it a wave?"

"Yeah." I gave the wand a quick wave, changing Brother's clothes, coat, and gloves a soft green.

"Al?" Brother looked wide-eyed at his clothes, his face distinctly pale.

I handed the wand back to Professor McGonagall and met Brother's eyes. "Are you alright?"

Brother just looked away from me. I ran my eyes over his tense body language.

With a sigh, I looked toward the coffee table that had become a coffee table once again.

"Al?"

I glanced over at Brother just long enough to see him looking back up at me. I shook my head. "It's nothing."

"Al, do you …?"

When I tore my gaze away from the coffee table, I caught sight of Brother forming two trembling fists. I patted his left shoulder. "Um, I was reminded of alchemy when she did that, only, I could do something too. I thought I could become like you for a moment."

I looked away when Brother crossed his arms. "Um, Professor McGonagall?" I asked.

"Yes?"

I looked down at the floor, shuffling my feet until I fell silent a moment later. "Thanks for those demonstrations. I found them very interesting, but..."

I was spared from saying more by Granny Pinako. "What Al's trying to tell you," she said, "is that these boys need time to think things over. Come back tomorrow."

"Very well." Professor McGonagall left the house, footsteps fading away until they disappeared entirely through the door, where they left us with a large cracking sound. Brother and I ran to check it out and found that Professor McGonagall had vanished.

"Wow!" I turned toward Brother with a grin on my face, but then the grin dropped. "Wow," I said, more softly this time, "just wow. Quite an impression, huh?"

I caught a glimpse of bared teeth the moment Brother spun around and ran up the stairs. I heard him slam a door or something moments later.

* * *

That night, I stretched out across the Rockbells' couch. I lay there with an alchemic theory book in my arms, reviewing why alchemists think that most humans can perform alchemy. Maybe I could get some insight into why I can perform the magic that Professor McGonagall spoke of. Maybe I could find out why Brother can't. Maybe I could even get an idea of why I can't do alchemy, knowing now that I can do magic.

I turned a page, revealing a diagram that illustrated the theoretical link between the Gate and alchemic ability. I studied the diagram, my eyes widening the slightest bit. I marked my page and got up off the couch, carrying my book with me.

I went upstairs and treaded over to the Rockbell's guest bedroom door. I raised my fist to knock, but then I paused, staying quiet enough to hear the voices coming from the room: Brother's and Granny Pinako's.

Granny Pinako was saying something. "You're a scientist. Shouldn't you be trying to understand a new phenomenon instead of dismissing it? You're hurting your brother with your attitude, you know."

I bit my lip and lowered my fist.

I turned, facing the stairs, but I stayed right at the doorway as Brother gave his reply: "I'm trying to protect him from people like that woman. She told us that she was doing magic, but I know what she's doing has an explanation. I think it's a bad sign that she wouldn't give the explanation to us, so I don't want Al to go anywhere near her. She might rub off on him."

I clasped my hands together and looked at the floor, smiling only slightly when Granny Pinako praised me to Brother. "I know you're worried about Al, but he's put a good head on his shoulders. He's already gotten a lot of experience thinking critically as an alchemical theorist. He can decide for himself how to think."

I shuddered at a thump that came from the wall closest to me, a thump that sounded as though Brother had thrown something. I winced as Granny Pinako started shouting something about giving me a chance to learn something I can actually apply, the word _small_ popping into her shouts too, and then I turned back toward the bedroom door, scowling.

I didn't bother to knock this time as I let myself into the room where Brother and Granny Pinako were fighting.

Brother looked my way as I entered the room. He instantly stopped yelling at Granny Pinako over calling him out on his size. His eyes widened. "Al," he said softly.

He sat in silence as Granny Pinako turned to face me too. "Al," she said, "why don't you tell your brother how you really feel about magic?"

But I didn't. I set my gaze on the floorboards and said steadily, "I'll stay here if Brother doesn't want me to go." I clutched my book to my chest. "I just came to get Brother's opinion on something, but I can see that you two are in the middle of something. Would you two please just stop arguing about me? I've already made up my mind about Professor McGonagall's offer."

I turned around and left the room. I ignored my brother as he called my name softly as I was leaving, letting Granny Pinako scold him for offending me instead. I just went back to the couch and opened my book again.

But I spotted the diagram right away. I sighed, closed the book again, and set it aside. I propped my head up in both hands as I slumped forward, elbows digging into my knees.

I sat there all night. When I got up for the day, I headed into the kitchen and got out the milk. Then I started making some particularly milky pancakes and poured three large glasses of milk.

I was just setting the table when Brother came into the kitchen, carrying the book I'd been reading the night before. He made a little gagging sound as he looked at the breakfast table.

"You know," I said, "you really should drink your milk once in a while."

He said nothing, so I kept lecturing him on proper nutrition. He remained silent as he pulled out a seat from the table and plopped down, setting my book down with a thud.

I stopped talking, but I did send a glare his way.

"Alphonse," he said.

"What?"

He paused, taking an audible breath before speaking to me. "Al, you said you wanted my opinion on something last night, so I went ahead and opened to the page you had bookmarked this morning."

I nodded, although Brother was busy looking at breakfast instead of at me. "Even if I'm staying away from that school," I said slowly, "I know now that I have some sort of ability, thanks to Professor McGonagall letting us try out her wand. I just thought my ability might have be related to the Gate and why I can't do alchemy. Like you can, big brother."

Brother gave a slight nod. He glared at the glass of milk. Then he chugged it down for once.

Brother made several gagging sounds as he put the empty glass down on the table. "Yuck!"

"Brother, you drank your milk!"

He chuckled dully. "I understand why you'd care so much about the whole magic thing, Al, and I figured I deserve your anger."

I took the seat next to him. "So I was thinking about the thing that Professor McGonagall calls magic last night. Then I wondered if I can use her magic but not alchemy because I get a different power source than most people through my Gate? Like maybe my Gate's just aligned with a different power source than most other people's Gates. So I reviewed that book last night, and I think that could be the case, Brother, but what do you think?"

Brother smiled. "I think it doesn't explain everything that the chimera-woman showed us yesterday, but it's possible, Al. How are we going to test it?"

"Well, we'd need to find more people who can't use alchemy than just me. I think that other witches and wizards shouldn't be able to use alchemy either if Professor McGonagall's magic really does come from our Gates being aligned with a different source." I glanced over at Brother's empty glass of milk. "I only know to look for other witches and wizards at that school Professor McGonagall mentioned yesterday, but I think we could find witches and wizards somewhere else if we looked hard enough." I looked at Brother, raising an eyebrow.

Brother swallowed a rather large, syrupy bite of pancake. "I'll have to talk to the chimera-woman when she comes back today. I remember her saying that her school is in another country." Brother grinned, but he shut his eyes too tightly for a happy face. "I'll just have to ask her about the best way for me and you to keep in touch over the long distance."

I blinked. "I thought you wanted me away from that school."

Brother quickly gave his hands some small frantic waves in front of him. "No, no! I want you to go, Al. How else are we going to test that hypothesis of yours? Besides, I promised Granny that I would let you have a chance to learn something you can actually do." Brother slowed his rate of speech down to normal. "I just want you to promise me that you'll do your own thinking about what they teach? You're way too good at alchemical theory to let your mind be corrupted like that."

I nodded. "I think I'll go try it out for a year. I'll miss you too, Brother."

Brother and I looked at each other, giving each other smiles that did not reach our eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

Brother went off on his own when Professor McGonagall came to hear my final answer, mumbling something about Colonel Mustang. I told Professor McGonagall by myself that I'd try Hogwarts out for a year.

Professor McGonagall acknowledged my decision and said that she'd come again the next day to take me shopping in London for my school supplies. She said that she'd come back again to pick me up for the start of term too.

She showed up the next morning with an empty jelly bean carton. She said it would whisk me and her off to London, so I waved to the Rockbells and touched the carton.

I widened my eyes at the sharp yank that the carton used to pull me and Professor McGonagall through a colorful vortex. I looked around wide-eyed when it finally deposited us inside some pub.

I looked at people in colorful cloaks and at teas stirring themselves. I stared at some of the customers who were chatting away. "I don't recognize that language," I said to Professor McGonagall.

She sent a spell at me right away. "That's English, which you'll be learning this year. But until then, you'll have to make do with translation charms."

Professor McGonagall then lead me through the back door of the pub. I saw nothing but a brick wall and a trash can out there. "Um, there's nothing here, Professor."

"Yet." She used her wand to tap on the wall a couple of times.

The wall moved, its bricks rearranging themselves into an archway before my eyes. "Whoa. That reminds me of when you use alchemy to make an exit, Brother." I turned my head to the side, but Brother wasn't there – just Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall spoke almost softly as she said, "I think your brother would have a poor reaction to magic here, just as he did in Amestris, but you yourself can certainly take the opportunity to enjoy yourself."

I nodded. I followed Professor McGonagall toward a giant marble building, and as I did, I stared at such sights as a girl slowly turning as pink as her ice cream and a couple of children chasing a miniature broomstick. I looked at the shops too, one in particular catching my eye. "A bookstore? We've just got to stop there. Look at all those books!"

I turned to look to my side, but I deflated on seeing Professor McGonagall there.

Professor McGonagall said nothing about Brother, giving me a glance instead. "We will," she said. "You can only get your required textbooks with your grant money, but you can exchange your own currency at the bank if you wish."

"Okay." I still glanced around at all the new sights while I followed Professor McGonagall, but I remained quiet all through the bank trip. I did open my mouth here and there, forming the first syllable of _brother_ , but I closed my mouth quickly each time I did.

I visited many shops with Professor McGonagall as we bought my school supplies, but I liked the bookstore the best. "Professor McGonagall," I looked up at her, giving her my best puppy dog expression, "I know I didn't bring any money, but would you mind if I just looked around a bit? I always read books with my brother back home."

I watched her scan the store's rows of shelves, her eyes eventually landing on an old witch waiting in line. "I suppose you could window-shop for a few minutes, but you must stay in this shop or you will be serving detention when the school year begins."

I thanked her and ran over to the shelves, giving a curious glance to moving books in a cage on my way. I read the plaques on the ends of each shelf, noticing that the shelves were sorted by subject and that the nearest shelf began with subjects starting in _z_. I walked down the front aisle, looking at the subjects on each shelf.

I reached the far shelf and gasped. "Alchemy?"

Indeed, alchemy was included among the subjects I could explore along the far wall. I reverently walked down that row until I reached the alchemy section.

I lost track of how long I browsed that section, but I had to tear my eyes away from a book called _Aunteres in Alkemy Strange_ when Professor McGonagall cleared her throat behind me. "Time to go, Mister Elric."

I nearly got trampled as I followed Professor McGonagall through Diagon Alley. "Could I learn alchemy in the magical world?"

"You could study alchemy at Hogwarts once you reach fifth-year status, provided that there's enough interest in the subject for us to offer a class. But you should know that alchemy has been losing popularity for centuries in our world, and you should also know that alchemy might be different in the magical world than the alchemy in your country – but you'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable in the subject."

I wasted no time to pause between my next questions. "Really? Could I take alchemy at Hogwarts? Could I talk to someone who could tell me more? Could I somehow get a hold of some magical alchemy books?" I took a breath and slowed down. "I just really want to learn more about wizards and alchemy. I'll teach myself from scratch if I have to, but I'd rather learn what's already been figured out first."

"I would talk to the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, if I were you. He knows more about alchemy than anyone else at Hogwarts, and he is usually available to talk to students. He could probably recommend some alchemy books in the Hogwarts library that you would find especially useful."

I beamed. "Then I have one last question, Professor: how can I keep in touch with my brother?"

Professor McGonagall gave me a small smile when I started beaming. "You can borrow the owls that Hogwarts keeps for students without their own owls to deliver mail. Now, you'll behave yourself between now and September first?"

I nodded, returning Professor McGonagall's smile.

Professor McGonagall pulled out the empty jelly bean carton once again. "Good. I'll see you on the first."

* * *

I took my things up to the room where Brother and I were staying. I placed my books on a nightstand and picked up _Magical Theory_.

I was interrupted a bit later by Brother, who was examining my books. "Al, why are all the books in another language?"

I looked at Brother. "I'm going to a country that speaks English, so English is the language my books are in. I can understand my books because Professor McGonagall did something to help me – a translation charm, she said."

I caught Brother frowning, so I quickly changed the subject. "When I was at the bookstore, I found an alchemy section."

"Anything good, Al?"

I shrugged. "I knew I can't get anything but my school supplies until I can convert cenz into wizard money. But I can tell you that the bookstore had a small selection of alchemy books, and the books were all pretty old. I'd never actually heard of any of the books." I looked Brother in the eyes. "I asked Professor McGonagall about alchemy, and she said that the alchemy that wizards do might be different than the alchemy you and I studied."

Brother sat down. "What does that mean for your research?"

"It means I have to find out why wizard alchemy and normal alchemy are different. If wizards are already known to be capable of using the same alchemy everyone else does and are just using a different technique, it means that I still don't know why I can't perform alchemy. However, if the two alchemys are different at a fundamental level, it could be a lead in my research."

I heard rustling pages, and when I looked over, I saw Brother making a face at a book he was flipping through. "Suddenly understanding a foreign language? Che." He looked at me. "Would that really make magic more believable, knowing that some alchemists experiment with the human brain? It's a con."

I sighed and held up my copy of _Magical Theory._ "I don't think whatever Professor McGonagall did was alchemy – she only had that stick. I don't know what's up with me and English, but if I can find any wizards' materials that can help me with my research, it's this book. I don't just trust what the wizards are saying either, but I do want to know what they're saying. I'm taking notes on this book, Brother. Will you look them over with me?"

Brother shook his head, turning away from me. "Al, I don't care what the scams are saying about the power they're using. But you should do your own research." I pleaded with Brother to stay and help, but he didn't even look back as he left the room.

* * *

I was all packed for school a few days later. I was all packed when Professor McGonagall came to pick me up and take me to the train station.

I gave my goodbyes to Brother and the Rockbells, but before I could touch the goblet that Professor McGonagall had brought to transport us to the station, Brother cried out.

"Wait!" he said, red-faced. He pointed directly at Professor McGonagall. "You had better keep my little brother safe. You had better make sure your school gives him a chance to sharpen his mind. Or you won't be forgiven."

"I'll assure you once again that Hogwarts is the finest school in the wizarding world, and it is safer than anyplace else." Professor McGonagall stared Brother down. He met her eyes and gave her a quick nod, still scowling.

He softened his expression and looked at me.

"I'll be fine," I said. "I'll keep in touch. I promise."

"Yeah."

I reached out and touched the goblet that Professor McGonagall was holding. I was whisked away to a train station that was filled with school-aged children and their families. Children were bustling around and loading luggage onto the train. They were having last-minute talks with their families and forming small groups of similar ages. They were speaking in a language that was, once again, foreign to me.

I looked at the gleaming letters on the train's side, but I could understand them just as well as I could understand the people around me. I looked at Professor McGonagall. "Um, Professor? I can't understand anything."

Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at me again, and I could finally read the name of the train: _Hogwarts Express_. "You will take English classes in the evenings. But until you master the language, you will have to see your head of house to have translating spells put on you for daily use."

I nodded. "I kind of expected something like that, being asked to step into a foreign environment." I thanked Professor McGonagall for the spell, then I was shooed onto the train.

On board, I walked down the aisles, searching for an available compartment until I found one with two boys about my age.

One was looking at the other as though he were something smelly he'd peeled off his shoe, but the other was too engaged in waving to a middle-aged couple on the platform to notice. "Could I sit here?" I asked them.

"You might as well," the boy with the sneer on his face said. "You can't be any worse than him. Look at how enthusiastically he's waving to those low-lives. But then, that's to be expected from someone like him."

Neither boy protested as I took a seat. "I don't see anything wrong with waving to them. I'd be waving to my brother right now too, if he could have made it to this country to see me off. And my brother will always be my family after all, no matter what I learn differently at Hogwarts than how I would have learned things back home." I looked at the boy with a sneer on his face. "What about you? Don't you have anyone you want to wave goodbye to?"

He snorted. "I was taught to leave that kind of embarrassing public display to Mudbloods and blood traitors."

I gazed at him with heavy eyes. "That's too bad. Family's the best thing we have in life, and I always want to share the best of life with my family. I'm Alphonse Elric, by the way. Who are you?"

He told me his name was Malcom Baddock, and when I asked the other boy for his name, the other boy said he was Nigel Wolpert. The three of us talked for a while, although Malcom and Nigel spoke very little to each other.

We talked about our families sometime during the trip. Malcom came from a long line of wizards, and he had been expected to attend Hogwarts his whole life. He was expected to learn the way that proper wizards think and do things.

Nigel, on the other hand, was the first wizard in his family, but his parents were proud that he got the chance to learn magic. He had been told to give it his all. He and Malcom both had more support than I did.

I told the others that Brother and I were well-known researchers back home and that Brother wanted me to stay true to scientific reasoning. He was discouraging me from thinking like a wizard.

After I finished chatting with the others, I got out a picture of me and Brother. I gazed at it until it was time to get changed.

I set the picture down on the seat next to me. That would be the closest Brother would ever come to sitting next to me on the Hogwarts Express - that and the horrible memories that randomly came to mind as the train was searched by dark, hooded creatures.

* * *

I was sorted into Gryffindor with Nigel, and I watched Malcom get sorted into Slytherin. I kept talking to both of them over the first few days, even though they started acting weird because they'd heard strange rumors about me.

I took my notes on magical theory to the library within the first week. I browsed the library's alchemy section and checked books like _Bas_ _i_ _k Theorie Alkemick_ and _Cemyk Fylosofie_ against my notes.

I folded my arms on the table and plopped my head in them, letting out a quiet scream. "This just isn't the same stuff I learned."

I sat there for a while before I could bear to think about getting back to studying wizarding alchemy. When I finally sat up, I was surrounded by tables that were getting a little more full, and I caught other students gossiping about me – the first-year who never slept and never ate.

Before the other students could ask me if I really was a zombie or something, I packed my bag and checked out the library books. I headed to my own dorm in the Gryffindor tower, barely acknowledging Nigel as I passed him in the common room.

I dropped my bag next to my bed. Then I picked a picture of me and Brother up off my nightstand. "I sure wish you were here."

I set the picture down and got out a quill, some ink, and some parchment.

 _Dear Brother,_

 _I don't fit in here at Hogwarts. I'm too scientifically-minded for the other students, and they gossip about my medical condition. I'm the only one who cares at all about magical theory – everyone else just accepts magic as magic._

 _It seems I'm the only one who cares about alchemy too. Although alchemy is offered as an elective for the older students, students here don't care enough about science to actually sign up for it._

 _Alchemy here seems different than what we studied together – even more so than how I thought it might be. I was left confused by just doing research in the library. I'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore – Hogwarts' alchemy expert – to help me understand it. I'll have to ask him to confirm that wizarding alchemy is truly different than Amestrian alchemy too._

 _If Professor Dumbledore confirms my suspicions about wizarding alchemy, I may be starting my experiments soon. I hope I can get the other students to understand more about science by the time I start. Anyway, I'm beginning to think I made a mistake coming to this school, but you'll support me at least, won't you, Brother?_

 _Your younger brother,_

 _Al_

I folded the letter up neatly and put it in an envelope, smiling briefly at the picture on my nightstand. I quickly wrote a letter to the Rockbells as well before heading off to the Owlery.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

I met with Professor Dumbledore in the next few weeks, and he confirmed my suspicions that wizarding alchemy was different than the alchemy back in Amestris. After that, I started drawing simple transmutation circles during my classes instead of taking notes.

I kept the transmutation circles tucked away inside my bag. I kept them away from the other students, even though I was supposed to teach them about the alchemic arrays for my experiment's early steps.

I waited a few weeks for the return of the school owl I'd sent with letters home. When it came, it carried letters from Brother and Granny Pinako.

Granny Pinako reassured me that I do belong at Hogwarts. _You have a noble goal to help others with your magic_ , she said, _so you belong at Hogwarts. Someday you will befriend your classmates and they will see that you belong there too._

I had a tougher time swallowing what Brother wrote:

 _We've talked about this. You may have access to the force that the chimera-woman calls magic, but you don't have to think like other wizards. In fact, you should keep thinking like a scientist._

 _If you have to give up scientific thinking to fit in, then I don't want you to fit in with the people at Hogwarts. Don't make friends with them. Remember you are only there to do research, so let me know how it goes._

I trudged to Transfigurations with Brother's letter in hand. I took a seat at the back and reread the letter until the start of class.

When class started, I shoved the letter into my pocket and put my head down. I stayed like that until Professor McGonagall approached me. She had already had my classmates start practicing the day's spell.

Professor McGonagall asked me to speak with her after class. I nodded and slowly got out my wand, sighing. I practiced with everyone else until class ended and I had to speak with Professor McGonagall.

"You have been putting less effort into all your classes lately," she said.

"I know."

"Even when you're working one-on-one with us to learn English, you're putting in minimal effort."

I shrugged. "I don't want to learn English."

I shuffled my feet as Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "Are you still planing to study alchemy here at Hogwarts?" she asked.

I slowly lifted my head and met her eyes. "I want to do the same alchemy that Brother can. I have very little interest in learning more about wizarding alchemy – I just want to figure out why I can't do Amestrian alchemy."

I continued before Professor McGonagall could get a word in. "I'd take up a research interest in your alchemy if I thought that it held a clue, but I don't want to be separated from Brother to get at it. I started reading about wizarding alchemy when the term started, but I think any books I could actually use are kept in the restricted section."

I was met with a frown. "I saw the look on your face when I first showed you magic. Are you tell me you don't really want to learn any?"

I wilted and pulled my arms around myself. I said toward the stone floor, "I thought I could be like Brother if I learned magic, but I was wrong. I stand out badly here, and I miss Brother so much."

"Mr. Elric, missing your family is normal, but you need to learn to deal with it. If you came here to become more like your brother, then you should stay to become more like your brother. You should spend more time with the other students if you miss your brother enough that it interferes with your studies."

I looked up at Professor McGonagall with wide eyes. "But..."

"If you were motivated enough to come here, then you should be motivated enough to meet your goals, Mr. Elric."

"You don't understand Brother at all. Brother hates..."

"Your brother does seem to hate magic, but you knew that when you decided to come here. You valued something enough to come here anyway. Are you going to give up on that now?"

I bit my lip as the next class was starting to trickle into the room. Finally, I sighed. "I came here to do research on wizards and alchemy. That's something Brother's okay with. I've been keeping him up-to-date, but I've lost motivation for my research too."

I dodged a moment later as Professor McGonagall summoned a packet of papers with a flick of her wand. She handed the packet to me. "Do you know what this is, Mr. Elric?"

I looked at the papers in my hand. I read, "Proposal for Magical Experimentation."

"These are kept for select NEWT students who would benefit from doing their own research on occasion. NEWT students alone have used these in the past, but the packets could be used by any student dedicated enough to a research project – even if the student is the first first-year who has expressed any interest. You have done research in your home country before, from what I understand, yes?"

I looked up and saw Professor McGonagall's gaze on me. She continued. "I am willing to work with you on this if you can show me one thing: that you would put effort into all your studies as you're doing your research."

I frowned. "I appreciate your offer, but I've been thinking about leaving Hogwarts. Hogwarts seemed like the most convenient place to do my research, but I could probably do it somewhere else. Besides, I want to see Brother again."

I was handed a note. "I assure you that you can enjoy yourself at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "You might feel out of place now, but you've gotten a friendship started with Mr. Wolpert. And for some reason, with Mr. Baddock too – quite a feat in this school. At least consider my offer."

I thanked Professor McGonagall, pocketed the note, and started walking off toward the greenhouses.

* * *

I left the research proposal blank for a while. I left it on my nightstand, where it lay next to the picture of me and Brother.

But I was making progress. I finally finished the transmutation circles I was drawing over the next week. I even got a folder for them, which I placed my blank proposal form inside of as well.

However, I still went straight to my dorm room after classes one day and got out a piece of parchment. I started writing some news for Brother.

 _Dear Brother,_

 _I came to Hogwarts for a one-year trial period, but I've already made up my mind – I'll be dropping out after this year._

I started to refill my quill, but I was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the common room. I quickly capped my ink and cleaned my quill, and then I headed out to the common room.

I found two of the older students, Fred and George Weasley, taking a bow. They were surrounded by various miniature fireworks, which were exploding in richly detailed pictures.

Fred and George were getting all the other students' attention. They were getting applause from many students who had been complaining earlier about student life, and they also were getting a few nasty looks from students who were packing up their study materials. The other students ignored me as I started to watch the fireworks with the students who were applauding.

I spotted a firework that looked like a long-haired blond wizard wearing a black outfit with a red robe over the top. I glanced at my newly invigorated fellow students as the display ended. I witnessed them practicing their magic again with renewed vigor.

"Magic really can do good," I said softly to the place where I'd spotted the red-robed wizard. "Even if you don't want to believe in it."

I approached Fred and George. "Excuse me."

"Why, George, isn't this one of our new first years?" Fred asked.

George grinned. "Why, yes, I believe it is. Perhaps he'd like to buy some of the Perfect-Picture Fireworks that we just demonstrated?"

I smiled. "I wanted to ask if you invented them yourselves."

"Yes, we did," said Fred. "You see, George and I are experts in taking magic and using it to fill a need. And we think that students around here always need to lighten up a bit." Fred grinned at me. "We've noticed that first-years like you are often feeling pretty homesick at this time of year."

I chuckled softly. "I guess. I feel a bit better now though, thanks to you. I thought I was the only one who appreciated the value of magical theory before your fireworks show – but you two needed to understand magic really well to make those fireworks, didn't you?"

Fred and George exchanged looks, grins spreading across both their faces. "Well," Fred said, "We've been studying magic longer than you have, so you should expect to take years to reach our level..."

"...but maybe you'll catch up to us someday," George said. "Until then, you can help us test out some of our inventions. You won't be paid, mind you – we lack the funds to go into business right now."

I grinned. "Yeah, I think I'll help. At least for a while."

Sighing, I glanced at the last of the fading firework smoke. "Actually, I was hoping I could trade you something for some of those fireworks. I haven't converted enough Amestrian money into wizarding money to pay for them at the moment, but I really want to send some home to my brother. I was hoping they could reassure him up a bit – he's been worried about me attending magic school, you see. He thinks that this school will rot my brain. I want to show him that students here can think well enough that they can invent new things with the magic taught here."

Before I could say anything else, I got a box of fireworks shoved in my face by Fred.

"Consider it a sign-on bonus as one of our testers," he said.

"Thank you! I'll do my best to help out." I ran to my dorm room and got out some fresh parchment, starting to completely rewrite my letter to Brother. I kept quiet about the possibility of dropping out just yet.

Oddly enough, I never heard back from Brother on the fireworks after I mailed them off.

* * *

I filled out the research proposal Professor McGonagall had handed me, but it was still sitting on my nightstand late in October.

Meanwhile, I took to haunting the library in my free time, my homework and several magical theory books spread across a table. I checked out books on magical theory too, studying the theory behind magic in each subject I was taking before ever turning in my class assignments.

I was sitting in my dormitory one evening, a theory book in front of me. I was taking notes on wand-work theory for charms. I suddenly tossed my quill down on the parchments. "This is hopeless."

I looked at my nightstand. I smiled at a picture of me and Brother that was sitting just behind my research proposal. I walked over and turned the picture over.

I slid something out of the picture frame – the letter to Brother that I'd started when I first wanted to drop out of Hogwarts.

I unfolded the letter and reread the lines I'd written. I returned to where I'd been writing my charms notes and set the letter down. I was moving my pen toward the ink when Nigel came in.

Nigel informed me that Fred and George were looking for me, so I thanked him and cleaned up my stuff. I headed out of my dorm shortly.

I returned over an hour later, wiping blue stuff off my face, but I couldn't wipe off the grin that I was now sporting. I spotted the letter to Brother still in my workspace. I folded it up right away.

"I'll tell him next time. I want to see more of those inventions before officially dropping out." With that, I tucked the letter back behind the picture frame.

I continued that way until the end of the month. Then I took two letters to Brother to the Owlery one day. One would give him the same everyday news of life at a magic school. The other would announce that I was dropping out of Hogwarts.

I looked between the two for a bit, a frown on my face. I finally placed one letter in my pocket. "I'll tell him next time."

As I was tying the remaining letter to one of the school's owls, I heard someone ask, "You'll tell who what next time?"

I spun around and backed into a wall. I was promptly knocked onto the straw on the floor. I slowly raised my head and found a third year Gryffindor, Ron Weasley, standing there. "Oh, it's just you," I said.

"You'll tell who what next time?"

I got to my feet, avoiding eye contact with Ron. "You've lived in the wizarding world your whole life, haven't you, Ron?"

"Yeah, what of it?" He gave me a puzzled look.

I looked at the Owlery floor. "I learned about the Statue of Secrecy the other day." I paused, shoving my hands in my pockets. "I wanted to learn magic to help the people around me with it – like my brother does with his skills. But if I'm forbidden from doing magic around most people I love, why should I keep learning magic? I guess you don't have that problem, living in the wizarding world and all."

Ron attached his own letter to an owl. "You're going to drop out of Hogwarts?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. I don't see why I should keep learning magic."

"Because magic is right useful, you know. You can do all sorts of things with it."

"What good is that if I'm not allowed to help even my own village with magic? I've lived my whole life around Muggles, and they've supported me and Brother since our parents were gone. But now I find out that I can't do magic around them – only Brother and Granny Pinako. And Brother, he hates that I'm learning magic anyways. I keep meaning to tell him that I'm going to drop out. In fact, I was just telling myself that I'd tell him with my next letter." I started shuffling toward the stairs, Ron coming to walk next to me.

"You know," he said, "some wizards do use magic to help Muggles – some of my family, for instance. My dad works with the Ministry, tries to keep wizards from harming Muggles. And my brother Charlie helps keep both wizards and Muggles safe from the dragon population. Wizards can still help Muggles discreetly. If the only wizard in your village is you, then you're the only one who can do some of the important jobs."

I nodded, keeping quiet for a moment. "Well, I guess, but I know there are more useful skills out there than just magic – like what Brother does. Brother hates magic anyway, and he doesn't like the way witches and wizards think either."

We reached the corridor at the bottom of the stairs. "I met Muggles like that when I picked my friend Harry up for the summer. He's much happier staying here and learning magic than staying with them."

Ron rattled on about different people's Muggle relations until we reached the common room. He also told me quite a bit about his and his friends' adventures the past few years, which reminded me of some things Brother and I did when we traveled together.

"I still don't know exactly how I could use magic to help people back home, but I get that I can now. So I guess I could think about staying at Hogwarts." I smiled. "I am reminded of something special to my family when I see magic, after all."

I thanked Ron for his ideas and went to my dorm. I took the research proposal from my nightstand and left Gryffindor tower.

I went to Professor McGonagall's office and knocked on the door. When it opened, I handed her my proposal. "Professor, I'm not sure I want to attend Hogwarts for seven years, but I think I might have finally found the motivation to work hard this year again."

I spoke as confidently as though I had no dark secrets about my true body, still ignorant of the disturbing secrets Brother was learning in Amestris.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

* * *

I just needed to make a few revisions to my proposal, and I started working on them in the glow of the _lumos_ charm, while everyone was sleeping in the Great Hall after Sirius Black's Halloween attack.

I finished it a few days later, the same day I got a letter from Brother. I opened the letter that afternoon while I was hanging out in the brightly lit Gryffindor common room.

I put myself into a natural sitting position, leaning against the common room's stone wall. I read through Brother's letter and started decoding it, ignoring the speculations about how Sirius Black got into the castle.

 _Al,_

 _I had good reason for not writing back to you last week. After all, you shouldn't trust in things that can apparently ignore Equivalent Exchange..._

I kept reading as Brother caught me up to speed in what had been going on in Amestris.

 _I admit I was skeptical after that chimera-woman's little demonstration, but I should have told you something I did about it back then – I called the colonel about her._

"I'm not sure she's a chimera, Brother," I whispered, although Brother was way too far away to hear me. I frowned, looking over at the place where I had once seen a firework that reminded me of Brother. "I don't know exactly how she turns into a cat, but I've never heard of a shape-shifting chimera."

 _I wish I could have gone with you and her to that place with those weird books, but I got called in by the colonel, who actually made himself useful for once. He introduced me to our newest state alchemist – who just happened to be a chimera expert. Suspicious, right?_

 _I haven't met even one alchemist into chimeras who was even halfway decent. I met with the Sewing-Life Alchemist alright, but I was sickened by what he did – I found out that he turned his own wife into a chimera to pass his state alchemy exam!_

 _I want you to look into the chimera-lady and whoever transmuted her if you're going to stay at that school without me, okay?_

I took a breather from my reading for a few moments. I stared at a rug instead, as though contemplating its red-gold patterns or its golden tassels. I noticed Nigel looking my way and forced myself to smile before I returned my focus to Brother's letter.

Before I got back to reading, I smoothed out the wrinkles I had put in the paper while reading about the Sewing-Life Alchemist.

 _Anyway, I got the Sewing-Life Alchemist arrested for human experimentation, but he had a little girl, a two-year-old named Nina. Her dad's been executed for what he did, so he can't take care of her. And her mom's been permanently changed into a non-humanoid chimera, so she can't take care of her either._

 _Luckily, Nina has relatives in a small village between Risembool and Central who can take care of her. She'd taken a liking to me while I was getting information from her dad, so I got assigned to take her there._

 _While I was there, I met an alchemist named Dr. Marco, an expert on philosopher's stones. He called them the devil's research, but he told me where to find his notes anyway._

I outright scowled at the letter.

 _I spent so much time trying to decode his notes last week that I didn't have time for anything else. And I didn't like what I found – philosopher's stones are made out of living humans, allowing the stones to have the illusion of ignoring Equivalent Exchange._

I gasped. I glanced around to see if anyone noticed, and then I pulled my knees up as though the action could better hide the coded Amestrian letter in my hands.

 _I won't use a philosopher's stone – not for anything. I'm out of ideas to get our bodies back. I think I might just give up, unless the so-called magic at your school can morally return your body._

I nodded to myself. I sat up a little straighter against the wall.

 _So I wonder what that so-called magic costs. What answers have you come across in your research? And how much do you trust them?_

 _I'm tolerating you studying at Hogwarts for now, but I want you to pay attention to what's really going on there. I think wizards are lazy at best – if they can't be bothered to check where their power comes from, then it's not right to use it. Hopefully, your power does come from the Gate without some unethical exchange._

 _You'd better look for the answers. You'd better keep an eye on people too. If you find anything suspicious, you should come home right away._

 _Ed._

I wrinkled my nose and handled Brother's letter like a dead fish. I tossed the letter into the fireplace and watched it burn, remaining standing even as I stood next to Nigel.

"Written by a git?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "No, I'm fine with the sender – Brother just told me something disgusting going on back home that casts doubt on magic's moral standing. I doubt magic's as bad as he fears, but I'd still rather not let anyone get ideas from his letter."

The letter was soon thoroughly burned as I watched. I clenched my fists and turned away from Nigel. "I've got to talk to Professor McGonagall about something – I need to start my research as soon as possible."

I took my revised proposal to Professor McGonagall's office. She told me that my proposal would need to be reviewed by a larger committee of Hogwarts professors – just to protect the other students who would be participating in my research, she assured me. She fully expected my proposal to pass, and she even volunteered to send out permission slips for the parents herself.

Permission was given to me to start getting students to learn about alchemy later that week. I was walking through the halls, heading back to the dormitories to celebrate when I nearly passed Harry Potter.

I slowed my pace and gazed at him. He didn't acknowledge me.

"Excuse me," I said. "You're Harry Potter, right?"

"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I don't really know what happened that night. I was just a baby, after all."

"I wanted to ask you about something else actually. I heard that your family isn't happy about you learning magic either. I was told that I should stay in school because I can use magic to help people back home – even with the Statue of Secrecy. But I really wish Brother was okay with it. I wanted to ask how you're dealing with your family's disapproval."

Harry looked at me. "Listen, if you and your family care for each other at all, then your situation and mine are completely different."

I looked at my feet. "Oh."

"But I do know that there are some genuine threats in our world. Threats Muggles can't defend themselves against. I know that Voldemort is doing everything in his power to come back to power. And if that happens, no one's safe. Not wizards. Not Muggles. Not in Britain and not abroad. If that happens, your only defense will be knowing how to use magic. And you could be the only defense for the Muggles around you too."

I stopped mid-step, clenching my hands into fists. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"I don't know," Harry said, "but I know he's come close. And I know that Sirius Black is one of his supporters."

"You mean the guy who attacked the Fat Lady?"

"Yeah, I do."

I stared straight ahead. "If I need to learn magic to protect those around me, then I'll keep at it despite whatever Brother says."

* * *

Just as I could glimpse white flakes floating toward the snowy grounds in the dawn light, I finished wrapping a boxed potion vial in shiny red paper and a black ribbon. I had spent several weeks looking into magical medicine since the day I'd gotten Brother's last letter.

Smiling, I labeled my gift as _to Brother._ I set it down beside two other packages I'd wrapped, inside my suitcase. I tucked a note under the gift's ribbon – instructions how to regrow limbs with the potion.

I raced from the Gryffindor tower down to the Great Hall. I couldn't eat, but I could still sit there and talk with my friends. I waved to my Slytherin friend, Malcom Baddock, before I took a seat at my own house's table.

I chatted with Nigel about the upcoming holidays until the mail arrived. Nigel nudged me, pointing out a large brown owl landing beside me on the table. The owl offered me the two letters tied on its leg.

"I bet these say how I'll be picked up when I get back to Amestris," I said, removing the letters from the owl's leg. I quickly opened one of the letters.

It was from Brother.

 _Al,_

 _Sorry you can't come home right now. You should be getting a letter from the Rockbells, saying that their guestroom is taken. Since you've lost your place to stay, you're going to have to stay at Hogwarts between semesters. Remain a good scientist for me until we can see each other again._

 _Ed_

I blinked hard several times. "What? But couldn't I stay with you, Brother? When do you think I'll get to come home?"

I frowned, reaching for my other letter. Sure enough, it was the letter from the Rockbells that Brother had mentioned in his own brief note. They had written to tell me that the guest room was being taken up by a new patient – a young lady who had lost her arm.

They too said there was no place for me in Amestris.

I let the letter fall to the floor. I ran back to my dormitory and collapsed into my bed. There, I sobbed the best I could with a fake body.

I was reassured by the other students that I was only temporarily spending the holidays at Hogwarts. I dried my tears and put on a happy face until they boarded the Hogwarts Express, but they were not fooled.

And they could do nothing to comfort me several months later, when I received news that I would not be allowed home for the first of several summers to come.

* * *

End Part 1


	5. Chapter 5

Part 2

Chapter 5

I lost the chance to know my brother as well as I used to. He and I still wrote each other over the years, but I never found out if he'd quit the military. Or if he was dating anyone. Or if he'd even tried the potion I'd sent him to regrow his limbs back in my first year. I didn't even know if he still felt bad about the big alchemy accident – the one that trapped me in a transfigured suit of armor instead of my real body.

I still talked about my brother occasionally, but only in passing. I only ever talked about him while researching alchemy, wizards, and whatever force it is that is called magic.

* * *

I took walks around the snowy Hogwarts grounds, although the snow had compacted long before Christmas break. I greeted the other students when they returned from the holidays.

And I got back in school mode right away.

I was able to pay attention in my fourth-year Transfigurations class. I straightened up when Professor McGonagall introduced us to transfiguring statues into live animals. "I know alchemists who wish they could create new life. They can't do that under alchemy's laws – not to my knowledge."

I raised my hand before Professor McGonagall could start passing out small snail statues. "What is the theory behind this transfiguration?"

"There is no specialized magical theory for this. General magical theory is the deepest explanation we have for live transfigurations."

When I received my statue, I held it in my hands and examined it. It was gray, porous, and probably rough to the touch. But more importantly, I could identify the same elements in it as in any other random pebble I could find around the Hogwarts grounds. I sighed as I set the pebble on my desk. "I don't get it."

"Perhaps you have gained another research interest, Mr. Elric?"

I shook my head. "I have enough of a research load with my alchemy projects. Besides, I know scientists can only help scientific knowledge evolve over time. We can't comprehend everything with just one life time." I gazed at the live snail on Professor McGonagall's desk. "And maybe we're not close to explaining some things either."

I pulled out my wand. "I know that the spells and stuff I've been taught thus far have worked, so I think I'm ready to try without knowing more theory behind how it works."

I failed to transfigure my statue into a live snail that day, but I did get its texture to change a bit. I doodled snails on my class notes the rest of the day, frowning at them. "I think," I said to my friends at length, "maybe I'm ready to believe in magic."

I went straight to my dormitory when classes let out. I opened my nightstand's drawer and got out some parchment.

I dipped a plain white quill in ink and began writing _Dear Granny Pinako._ I smiled as I wrote this letter. _I observed something amazing happen in class today..._

I wrote my letters to Granny Pinako and Winry first. I wrote them quickly without needing to stop for the right words. After all, I didn't need to defend my new insight about magic to the Rockbells.

And then I wrote Brother too.

I crossed out several words and phrases while drafting my letter to Brother. I replaced entire sentences and paragraphs. And I rewrote the letter multiple times before penning my final draft on a clean parchment. I just hoped I could adequately explain magic to Brother.

 _Magic,_ I wrote, _is simply the wonderful or the unexplained. Magic exists because life is too short to figure everything out, and it will likely always exist as long as science is needed too. Science is fine for my research interests, but I cannot research everything I'm learning at this school in my lifetime. I'll simply have to accept it as magic, the wonderful or unexplained, for now._

I wished Brother well and signed the letter. Then I headed straight for the Owlery, free hand fidgeting with my robes.

* * *

I'd continued my research over the past years. I'd long since determined that wizards can't do Amestrian alchemy. Since then, I'd kept examining wizards and alchemy.

I was currently studying how magic and alchemy interact. I checked out an old leather-bound book on historical wizarding alchemy from the library. I read it sometimes during breakfast when I couldn't eat and my friends were too sleepy to talk.

I finished reading about the last known interactions between wizarding alchemy and Muggle alchemy one cloudy morning. I put the book in my bag when Nigel came to the breakfast table so I could talk with him instead.

But our chat was interrupted when a post owl came my way. I reached for its leg and untied a single envelope.

I frowned out the envelope. Then I looked at the owl. "Didn't I have another letter too?" I asked it, but it just flew off.

I read the single letter I'd received. It was from the Rockbells. Granny Pinako and Winry had received my letter about live transfigurations.

Granny Pinako told me that she was glad I was enjoying something more practical for me than alchemy. She said I would help a lot of people with magic one day, like Brother could do with alchemy.

But Brother held a different opinion on me and magic. And I didn't have to read his missing reply to know that.

I kept writing Brother and the Rockbells after that, but Brother stopped sending me letters. I asked Granny Pinako if Brother was disgusted by me. She told me he was.

I continued sending Brother updates on my slowing research over the next couple months. I asked him questions and begged him for feedback. But he maintained postal silence.

I gave up on him in March.

I went up to the Owlery with mail to send home. I chose a large tawny owl from the school's selection to carry my letters. As I tied the letters to the owl's leg, I said, "I've heard of people asking owls to pester people to write back, but that's a lost cause with my brother. I think he's completely rejected me now."

I finished off my knot. "In fact, the letter I'm sending Brother today is the last letter I'm sending him. He clearly doesn't want to keep in touch with me anymore." I watched the owl fly until it vanished into the horizon.

Then I plodded back to my dormitory. I sat down on my bed, near my mahogany nightstand. I picked up the picture of me and Brother.

I held it for some time. But afterward, I removed the picture from its frame. I took out a place to hide the picture – a folder containing the research projects I'd undertaken during my previous years at Hogwarts. "Goodbye, Brother – Ed," I whispered as I closed the folder.

I tread over to the trash can. I held the entire folder over it, my arm trembling. I finally withdrew my arm and went to hide the folder under my mattress.

I referred to Brother as Ed from that point on.

* * *

I spent the next couple weeks feigning happiness. I quickly smiled whenever someone looked at me, and I kept my head up in the halls. But I had to answer what was bothering me anyway.

When asked, I did tell the truth.

I kept up the routine until I was sitting in Professor Slughorn's class one day, working on making a Wit-Sharpening Potion. I was reaching for the ginger root when I found a paper airplane sitting on the table in front of me.

I glanced around. I found Professor Slughorn talking to a scrawny Slytherin girl, so I quickly opened the plane up, reading its contents quickly.

The plane contained a warning from my Slytherin friend, Malcom. He said he knew of some dangerous legislation being pushed through the Ministry of Magic.

He said the legislation would incriminate me for my blood status, and he expected it to be pushed through by the beginning of the next school year. Malcom suggested that I return to Amestris for my own safety.

I caught Malcom's eye and mouthed a thank you, quickly pocketing the warning. I turned to my friend Nigel and warned him too.

I spent the rest of the day warning the other Muggleborns in my classes. After classes, I returned to Gryffindor tower, remaining glum through the warmly decorated common room.

I headed up to my dormitory and got some parchment. I got out my quill and ink, but then I hesitated, gnawing my lip. I shook my head and quickly wrote a note to Ed.

 _Ed,_

 _I know how you feel about magic, so I won't tell you anything about it. But I really need some help because of things going on here. Things are going to become dangerous in this country very soon – this country will soon get laws that will discriminate against me our my family. I need to come home._

 _Your younger brother,_

 _Al_

I wrote a similar letter to Granny Pinako, just in case. I put Granny Pinako's letter and Ed's letter in my robe pocket. Then I headed out of my dormitory.

I bumped into Hermione Granger, a fellow Muggleborn I hadn't warned yet, in the common room. "Hello, Hermione. I've got something important I need to tell you."

She blinked. "Of course." She took a seat and waited for me to join her.

I declined with a shake of my head. "Do you know what's going on at the Ministry of Magic right now?"

Hermione grimaced. "A lot of things. Why do you ask?"

"I've got a friend in Slytherin house. He hears what some of his housemates' families' crowds get up to. He told me that it would be safest for me to go into hiding soon – he hears that his housemates' families' crowds are managing to push through some very dangerous anti-Muggleborn legislation. I know that it's not in the papers, and that I'm unusual in having access to this information, and I wanted to make sure all the other Muggleborns I can reach know about this."

Hermione frowned. "And this friend of yours, you can trust him?"

I looked her in the eyes. "He took a risk getting this information to me. I know Slytherins aren't popular, but that doesn't mean they're all bad. I know I can trust my friend."

"I'll help spread the word. I suppose you'll be going back to Amestris then?"

I nodded. "My brother doesn't want me back, but I'm sure my neighbors will be willing to take me if he won't."

* * *

I got an owl back from Granny Pinako on a weekend a few weeks later. I read the contents and hung my head. I left the Great Hall, heading back to the common room instead of sticking around to chat with the other Gryffindors.

I punched the common room wall, sending a bit of debris flying. I kept my fist against the wall and leaned into my arm. I couldn't cry, but I could stand there trembling.

"Alphonse," I heard, "is everything alright?"

I straightened up and turned around. I saw that the common room was empty except for three other people – the Golden Trio. They had books and parchment spread out before them, but even Hermione had put down her quill in favor of looking at me.

"I heard back from Amestris," I said. "My brother doesn't want me back, but my neighbors won't take me either. I don't have anyplace to hide when the new laws come out."


	6. Chapter 6

**I swear, as my stories go on, my chapters get shorter and shorter. As much as I love writing, I actually really hate editing (as I found out when I tried to minor in editing). It results in shorter chapters - shorter chunks to edit. It also results in my delaying my updates if I don't have enough motivation to do the final steps of editing my chapters before putting them up on fanfiction, or sometimes just skiving off the last couple steps of editing altogether in order to update sooner and try to get motivation to edit the next chapters from the response.**

 **And so I want to thank everyone who's reviewed this fic so far. Your reviews have helped me get through much of the editing drudgery. (Some more reviews would also help. Please?)**

 **Anyways, sorry about the length and the wait everyone. I'll try not to take so long on chapter 7.**

* * *

Chapter 6

I'd been used to Ed swearing before I was used to other students swearing, so I was not shocked when Harry and Ron provided many colorful descriptions about Ed and the Rockbells after I told them I couldn't hide in Amestris. Harry and Ron were eventually nudged into silence by Hermione.

"We can help Alphonse find someplace to hide, can't we?" she asked. "I have a few ideas myself."

Hermione stood up, abandoning her homework. "I've got to get some stationary." She gave me a quick smile as she headed toward the girls' dormitories.

* * *

Hermione approached me in the library about a week later. "Good news, Alphonse. I contacted Fred and George, and they're willing to hide you."

I set my book down on the oak table. "Really?"

"Yeah. They say they remember you helping them test their products. They don't want anything bad to happen to you."

I smiled. "Those two really are good people."

I left my book on the table because Hermione decided to sit down next to me. "There's something I wanted to ask you," she said.

I turned my head toward her, and she took the invitation to continue.

"You might not like it – I heard you've given up on your research, but you still have it, right?"

I clenched a fist. "It reminds me of Ed."

"But it could help remind the rest of us that everyone is a person."

I made no move to look at Hermione as she continued, but I didn't up and leave or anything either.

"You know a war is going on," she said. "You know people are scared, and when people are scared, they trust less. They could trust Muggles and Muggleborns less, seeing us as different. You know what sorts of things those new laws coming up are going to label us. We need your research to remind people that we're people, not just outsiders. And we need it to before those new laws come out."

I sighed. I unclenched my fist just a bit. "Why would my research make a difference for people? Once people make up their minds, it's hard to persuade them."

"But some people haven't made up their minds, and many of them are at this school. They'll someday find that choosing a side in this war was more important than even what grades they got on their finals." The advice was typical Hermione.

Hermione met my eyes. "Please, Alphonse. You're kind, brave, and accepting – and that's earned you respect at this school. You've even earned respect among some Slytherins, you know – you're the only one who's good enough friends with a Slytherin to be warned about the new laws. You can get people to listen to you."

"You're flattering me."

"No, I'm just pointing out the truth. I remember how you used to talk about learning magic so you could help people with it, like your brother does with his alchemy."

I flinched at the mention of my brother.

"Look, do you still want to help people or not? You've got a chance right now. You could persuade enough people to turn the tide of the war, and those people could remember what you taught them while they're rebuilding too. You wished once that you could help people back home with what you're doing at Hogwarts. You did research here that shows they're human too, right? You have a chance now to help them."

I fidgeted under Hermione's gaze. She hadn't taken her eyes off me for a moment when she'd stopped talking and was continuing to stare me down.

"Fine," I finally said, "I'll think about it."

"I'll talk to you again later. Before then, you should make arrangements to go into hiding with Fred and George."

I did end up sharing what I'd researched with other students. I made them responsible for sharing the information with their friends. But I did have to share my research with some students myself, and I always cringed when the topic of my brother came up.

* * *

What I had to say was particularly dangerous for Slytherin house. The Slytherins did have the most to lose by listening to me after all.

So I was surprised when a Slytherin first year wanted to hear what I'd learned. I knew she'd made a request that I had to honor. After all, how could I not talk to her if she would risk the danger to talk to me?

She and I snuck out of our dorms past midnight to talk safely.

I snuck through the armory, hiding behind a suit of armor when footsteps approached. I pressed myself into the shadows as Mr. Filch passed with a lantern.

I remained absolutely silent, having no need to even breathe. I stood there and clutched my research folder to my chest.

I waited until Mr. Filch's last faded footsteps sounded to continue. I peeked around each corner until I reached the abandoned classroom where I'd agreed to meet the Slytherin girl.

She'd come alone. She'd come apparently unarmed, only a gray diary tucked under her left arm. She must have trusted me to some degree.

I smiled. "Thanks for coming. I know what a risk you're taking tonight, and I appreciate that you want to hear me out anyways."

The girl frowned. "I'm not here to hear _you_ out, I'm only here to collect your knowledge. Knowledge is power, you know. Some knowledge more than others."

I chuckled. "Knowledge requires the truth, and the truth shows the value of human lives like yours and mine. I believe that those who seek after truth will have strong morals, and things will turn out fine for them because of that." I hesitated, an image of Ed forming in my mind. "Even if they are hated by some people, but who cares about them?"

I said in a smaller voice, "I'd be happy to share my research with you."

I told the Slytherin girl about my research, and I told her about the aftereffects of the Ishval Civil War that Ed and I had observed. She kept her opinions and questions to herself as I spoke, and she never got the chance to bring them up because we were interrupted by the sound of an explosion.

We cracked the classroom door and peeked out. There, we saw a bunch of pajama-clad Hufflepuffs also investigating the noise.

The Hufflepuffs were asking someone, Harry Potter, what was going on. But Harry didn't answer. He just plowed through the corridor.

The corridor soon filled with whispers of the Dark Mark.

I tugged the classroom door closed. I looked at the young Slytherin beside me.

"You don't want even the Hufflepuffs knowing about tonight, do you?" I asked. "And you definitely don't want Death Eaters finding out that you came to talk to me. I heard something about the Dark Mark."

I pointed my wand at the classroom door, sealing it with a soft light. I gestured for the Slytherin girl to follow me to the other side of the classroom.

I explained slowly what I was going to do, shaking my head to keep my mind in the here and now. "I picked up this trick from my brother. He uses alchemy to make his own exits when the conventional ones are compromised. And well, he originally inspired me to learn magic after all."

I pointed my wand at the classroom wall and made a peephole in the mortar. "All clear." I used my wand again to make a new archway in the wall for the girl. "Get back to your common room. Be careful."

The girl fled from where she'd listened to me.

I transfigured the wall back to normal and ran around the corridor to ask the Hufflepuffs what had happened. I was told that Death Eaters had made their way into the castle, killed someone, and set the Dark Mark. I was told that Harry was likely going after them.

I ran off the direction that Harry had plowed down the corridor and followed a trail of debris. I ran toward Hogwarts' main doors.

I opened the doors onto a lawn lit by lights from all the castle's windows. Clearly, the castle had been alerted that something was up while I'd made my way down. I burst out onto the Hogwarts grounds moments later.

I missed the battle that had waged on the grounds. I found the aftermath instead.

I could discern smoke coming from Professor Hagrid's hut, even in the night's darkness. I saw shadowy masses standing in front of the hut, one large enough to be the professor himself.

As I looked around the grounds to learn the extent of the damage, I noticed people starting to gather around the base of the astronomy tower. I went to take a look and saw something lying there, lying far beneath the Dark Mark.

It was Professor Dumbledore.

He lay motionless, limbs splayed at odd angles, blood trickling from his mouth. He lay, for some reason, near an open locket.

"Is he dead?"

Professor Dumbledore was checked for a pulse by a dark-haired student. The student turned and confirmed to us that he was dead.

I bowed my head and stood there silently a moment.

I was joined by a fellow Muggleborn as Harry approached the tower too. Harry knelt in front of Professor Dumbledore's body, ignoring us.

My fellow Muggleborn asked, "What do we do now? We've been protected by Professor Dumbledore for so long."

"I guess this means those new laws will come out soon. Time to hide." I imagine that a pit would have formed in my stomach if it could have then.

I spotted the Slytherin students starting to join us and glanced at the girl I'd been teaching that night. She wore an unreadable expression, but she looked alright: no visible hexes or injuries. She might not have been caught talking to me or looking otherwise suspicious after all.

* * *

I attended Professor Dumbledore's funeral with the rest of the school. The funeral was attended by many different types of people.

It was conducted rather exquisitely, and it had speakers that enlightened me on how much influence Professor Dumbledore'd had in keeping some peace.

I gazed at the body on the white stone slab. And I kept thinking about Ed for some reason.

But then I guess it couldn't be helped – I'd studied magic in part to keep Ed safe since Harry Potter had warned me of upcoming magical dangers.

* * *

I spoke very little in the wake of Professor Dumbledore's funeral. I spoke barely a hundred words the rest of the term.

I remained quiet through the train ride from Hogwarts too. I shared a compartment with Nigel, and it was almost silent, save for the gentle chugging of the train.

I'd taken my research folder out of my trunk. I was holding it on my lap, gazing at the carpet's red and blue patterns.

I sat perfectly still until Nigel broke the silence. "I heard you had trouble finding a place to hide," he said. "Is everything okay, mate?"

I raised my head just a bit. "I'm going to hide with the Weasley twins. I'm going to help them with their shop so I don't think I'll feel too bad or anything. I guess I'm just still thinking about Professor Dumbledore's death."

I opened my research folder when the silence resumed. I turned to the back and held the picture that I'd never actually thrown away. I looked into my brother's fierce, golden eyes. He'd be okay at least, wouldn't he?


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you all for your reviews. They definitely made it easier for me to stay motivated as I tried something new to try to get this chapter edited and up. I appreciate the positive and negative feedback on how I'm doing as a writer. I'm glad to say that the 7th chapter is now up.**

* * *

Chapter 7

I stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for part of the summer, and that time dragged by in an awful blur flavored with the awful anticipation of the upcoming laws that would be out to get me. But I had an otherwise uneventful stay, the most exciting thing happening being me breaking my resolve to not write Ed in the aftermath of Professor Dumbledore's death. I wrote a letter to him shortly before it was time for me to move in with Fred and George.

 _Ed,_ I wrote, _I still care about you and always will. I want to hear if you're doing well. I want to hear if you have any major life events, like one that's happening for my friends' brother this summer (I'm told he's getting married)._

 _Even if you write for no other reason, please let me know you're still alive. As I've told you before, there are dangerous things going on here in England, and I'm scared for everyone around me. I want to hear that you're safe in Amestris at least._

But I couldn't send the letter. It was too dangerous for him and for me. I was supposed to go into hiding soon, after all.

I put my letter in the back of my research folder instead, tucked just behind my picture.

I packed up that evening, slipping out through the rooms to the pub's back entrance. I passed some small children, who looked like siblings, hugging each other. I smiled grimly as I met up with Fred at the pub's back door.

Fred handed me a cloak, some fliers about Weasley's Wizarding Wheeze's latest products, and a Headless Hat. "Nothing too unusual about you, mate. You're just a part-time employee getting off late. George and I have been getting people to advertise all day."

I glanced at the fliers. They were selling Fred and George's prank products, as well as some more practical products charmed with concealment spells. Fred grinned. "We're using the Headless Hat as part of our advertising, but it certainly won't hurt you. Come on."

I pulled on the cloak and the hat and followed Fred to a shop with large windows in the front. "You'll be staying mostly in our apartment and our back rooms. We want to stay in business as long as possible, but if we have to leave for any reason, you're coming with us."

Fred took me inside the shop and closed the door behind us, flipping the sign over to show that the shop was now closed. He gave me a brief tour of the shop, including all the back rooms.

Fred stopped in one of the back rooms in particular, filled with blueprints and half-finished products of various types. He went and stood next to George, who was waiting in there with a slim stack of papers. "Hey, Al," George said. "Welcome to development. This room's as secure as we can make it to ensure the safety of our prototypes and to hide anything related to the war efforts back here."

"War efforts?"

Fred grinned. "Although a good laugh does wonders to boost morale, you don't think we're only going to focus on pranks with worse threats than You-No-Poo running around, do you?."

George set the papers down on a desk. "Take these papers, for example. Since we heard about those new laws coming out, we've been looking into how they could be enforced. More than one of us work for the Ministry, and we hear a few things."

"Wait a minute, who's _us?_ " I asked.

"The Order of the Phoenix. The organized resistance to what's going on. Fred and I are both members."

"You're not the only one we helped into hiding," Fred said. "But we did get special permission for you to hide with us and have access to this room. You see, we heard what you did in Hogwarts. You sounded a warning about the upcoming laws, and you told people the truth about Muggleborns. You upset quite a few Death Eaters by doing that."

I shrugged. "Hermione said it would help keep people safe."

George nodded. "We were wondering if you could keep using your research to help out. You're underage, so you can't be a member of the Order or anything, but we think one of the first steps in enforcing the upcoming laws would be a smear campaign against Muggleborns, so if you could make some opposing literature, since you've already spoken up..."

I nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Late that night, I sat at a candle-lit table in the development room. I was finishing up looking over the notes George left for me on the anti-Muggleborn campaign. I jotted down notes that I'd use to create a countering pamphlet for Fred and George to distribute.

Then my head started drooping toward the table for the first time in years. I sat up a little straighter, but I found my head drifting toward the table again.

I was immersed into a world of empty white. I saw no sign of where I'd just been. I looked around. "Is anybody here?"

I caught motion out of the corner of my eyes. I turned and found a skeletal boy with an untamed golden mane standing up. "Over here," he called, using my own voice.

I approached slowly, stopping several feet from the boy. The boy reached for me but stayed put.

I backed away from the boy's outstretched hand. I looked up from his hand to get a better look at his facial features. I was met with golden eyes set a face I could recognize, even while its body was severely malnourished. "You're my body!" I blurted out. "My real body."

"And you're my soul," he said. "Let's reunite."

I shook my head. "We'll be trapped here completely then. Ed isn't coming to rescue us."

My body gazed at me with a frown. Then it started fading out, and Fred and George's back room started to take shape. I sat up. "What just happened?"

* * *

I said nothing to Fred and George about what had happened the other night. After, all, what could I say: that I'd aided my brother in a ritual that would surely be considered the alchemical equivalent of the Dark Arts and lost my true body in the process? Besides, I didn't want to spoil the festivities for their brother's wedding.

I stayed behind in the shop as the twins went to attend the wedding. I occupied myself by watching the twin's special love potions that they'd left to simmer. When the latest batch of love potion was the color the twins told me to watch for, I took its cauldron off the flames and started pouring it into waiting bottles.

I mentally scoffed. As if some potion could make you care about someone! I didn't know of a single potion that could make my brother care about me again, so why would a potion generate lasting feelings for a lover?

Love was based on empathy, compassion, goodwill, and sacrifice. Good relationships were built on mutual love, trust, and commitment. Personally, I'd never trust a girl again if I found out she'd slipped me a love potion. And where would our relationship be then?

I sighed, lowering the cork I was about to put into the next bottle. I used to have such a good relationship with my brother. Where did it go wrong? It wasn't like I'd intentionally hurt him by studying magic or anything.

A couple hours later, Fred and George Apparated directly into the back rooms. George grabbed my arm. "Alphonse, what do you need to bring with you if Death Eaters followed us?"

"Just my research folder. It has a picture of Ed. They could go after him."

George summoned my research folder. He kept his grip on me and turned.

Then I got one of those rare moments of sensation, but this one was not at all pleasant. I felt as though I was being rapidly forced through a narrow tube that squeezed me tight – especially around the chest.

I landed with George before it could occur to me that I can't actually suffocate. George let go of my arm and I fell forward onto a thick patch of grass.

"It's happened," said George. "The Ministry's fallen, and those laws you warned us about should be going into effect immediately."

I slowly pushed myself to my feet. "Where are we?" I asked. "And where's Fred?"

"Fred should be joining us soon," George said, as I started to study my surroundings. "He knows where we were going. This, Al, is my Great-Aunt Muriel's."

I looked around. There was an isolated pink-painted home with a row of shimmering bushes neatly aligning the front, a row of mixed flowers in front of them. There was a path leading around a hill, where I suspected other homes lay. But the home was otherwise surrounded in all directions by a forest.

Muriel's yard was marked by a picket fence, containing a small green lawn that was interrupted only by a red brick path leading to the front door. We walked up the path to the cream-colored door with a fanlight and a sidelight. George rapped on the door. "The wedding was interrupted by some unpleasant characters, but I think Great-Aunt Muriel Apparated here before we did. Fred and I did have to go back to our shop and get you and some important stuff out first."

When we were let in, we were greeted by an ill-mannered old lady who made us put shoe covers on before we came in any further. The furniture all had the same large-print floral pattern, and the whole place smelled strongly of lavender.

Muriel criticized George and I for things like getting dirt in her entryway, not giving an old lady a proper greeting, and having too mischievous of looks in our eyes. We were spared when Fred arrived with the Order's stuff that the twins had kept in their development room, and we slipped upstairs and into one of the guest rooms while Muriel turned her criticism on Fred instead.

"There's not a lot of room here: Great-Aunt Muriel usually lives alone." George said. "The three of us will have to share this bedroom, but we can't be too picky right now."

I looked down at the cream-colored rug on the rosewood floorboards. "It must make things harder to have me along. I'm sorry. I wish I could have gone back to Amestris, but thank you."

* * *

I returned to the Gate again that night, but I still kept quiet about it. I told my body again that Ed's not coming to the rescue and that I need to stay and fight with my friends, but it seemed to want to reunite anyways.

I kept quiet as I helped Fred and George set up a radio program called _Potterwatch_ over the next couple weeks. They said that I was too young to go on the air – I was underage, and it was dangerous.

But it wasn't as though I couldn't help out at all – after all, the research I'd done for the past four years was something that could help counter the notion of Muggleborns like me stealing magic – at least among anyone who was open enough to listen to _Potterwatch_ in the first place.

However, helping with _Potterwatch_ did not keep me from returning to the Gate at random times. One time, I went while I was trying to talk with Fred about some rumors that Muriel had told us about Voldemort eating brains.

I couldn't fight my own fake body as it slouched over in Muriel's overstuffed armchair and my vision faded to white. I arrived at the Gate, and my real, malnourished body stood up to greet me.

My body stretch out a hand toward me. "Let's reunite."

I shook my head. "I don't want to. No one's coming to get us out. We'll be completely trapped in here."

"We'll be safe in here," my body said. "Didn't you tell me how dangerous things are outside right now? Isn't it better just to stay here?"

I backed away. "It may be dangerous out there, but being trapped in here until I die is a fate worse than death. Besides, I'm needed out there. I don't want to abandon my friends like Ed abandoned me."

My body sat down, still peeking out at me through long, greasy hair. "Then go. But we'll see each other again soon."

* * *

When I woke up, I heard people whispering somewhere above me. I couldn't make out any words at first, but I did hear them whispering.

"I don't know," one of the twins was saying. "He just suddenly passed out."

Someone swore. There was a dull thud, as though someone had kicked something. I opened my eyes and found Fred pulling out his wand, mumbling something about when he and George had invented Fainting Fancies.

I sat up and found myself on one of Muriel's beds with a flowery comforter. I tried to smile reassuringly, but I think the smile probably came across rather weak. "I guess I can't pretend that didn't happen anymore, can I?"

"I hate to say it," George said, "but, Al, that was serious. What's been going on, and how long has it been happening?"

"I've told you about my research, right? But I've never told you much about Amestrian alchemy." I pulled my knees up to my chest and remained silent for a few moments, searching for the right words.

"Alchemy," I said, "is a learned skill available to Muggles. It's not magic, but I think it's just as powerful. There are some things magic can do that alchemy can't, but there are also some things alchemy can do that magic can't."

I looked at the twins. "Have I told you that my brother is an alchemy prodigy?"

"Well, you did say he's an alchemist."

"He's brilliant. Always has been. He could do things with alchemy that most fully-trained adults couldn't even attempt. He was even able to attempt something that most fully-trained adults couldn't survive too, but it just wasn't possible."

I lowered my eyes and told Fred and George the basic outcomes of what happened when my brother tried human transmutation – although not what he actually did, and I told them that my soul was being rejected by the transfigured suit of armor that was currently serving as my body – that I'd been visiting my real body at the Gate. "This has been happening since earlier this summer, but the only one who might know how to help me is my brother, Ed."

Fred scowled, and George looked angry too. "This can't keep happening. The two of us are going to get a hold of your git of a brother."

"Good luck," I mumbled. "Ed started ignoring my letters this last school year. He wouldn't even let me come home when I told him that England's no longer a safe place to be."

* * *

Fred, George, and I pestered Ed and everyone else back home with as frequent owls as we could risk for several months – giving the owls instructions not to return until they had a proper response for us. But all we learned was that Ed was still constantly traveling and hard to get a hold of.

Then, one day, an owl we'd sent to the Rockbells swooped into Muriel's living room while she was out gossiping with her friends. The owl carried a single letter that looked as though it had gone through the postal system back in Amestris.

 _To Mr. Alphonse Elric:_

I frowned and checked the letter's signature – it was from Colonel Mustang. I looked over at Fred and George. "It's from my brother's commanding officer."

The two crowded around me. "What's it say?"

I started to read the letter, but I gasped and dropped it before I could finish. "It's a formal notice," I said, "that my brother is missing in action."

Fred snatched the letter off the ground. "What? That git can't go missing now with what you have at stake."

I sat on Muriel's overstuffed armchair. "I thought Ed stopped talking to me because he'd rejected me, but I don't know how long it takes for someone to be declared MIA. What if the reason Ed stopped talking to me was because something bad happened to him? I've got to look for him."

"You can't," said Fred. "The rest of this letter said that your brother went missing on a mission here in England just a few weeks ago. You can't afford to be spotted. Let us look for him – we can get the rest of the Order to help too."

I jumped to my feet. "That's not fair! Sure he hates me, but he's my brother!"

Fred and George pointed their wands at me. "You're underage and still have the Trace. You use magic at all and both you and your brother are as good as dead. Is that really what you want?"

I picked up a sunflower-shaped knickknack from the coffee table and aimed it at the twins, but then I threw it against the wall instead. It shattered. "You're right," I admitted. "But I still want to help." I drilled my gaze into Fred's eyes, holding perfectly still.

Fred nodded. "We'll need to know what your brother looks like."

I relaxed my stance. "If he's alive and free, he may be hiding and in disguise or something, but I've got a picture in my research folder. It's not exactly recent though."

I led the twins to where I kept my folder in Muriel's study. I opened the sliding door under the writing desk and pulled out my research folder. I opened to the back and pulled out the photo.

Brother had his human arm around me. His automail arm was making a fist by his side, his dead-serious face being framed by a few stray strands of blond hair that couldn't be pulled back into his braid. Even more than I'd remembered since I'd last looked at the picture, his golden eyes gave off the impression of burning flames. And I was there, standing close to Brother – more relaxed, but my face not smiling either as my right hand disappeared to somewhere between his shoulders.

"Cheery lot you two are."

I handed the photo to Fred. "Ed changed when Mom died, and he took a turn for the worse after we got into a big alchemy accident. He started treating me differently once I went off to Hogwarts too. He's strong, but he's been through a lot. I don't know what state of mind you'll find him in if he's alive. But you know he hates wizards."

"Brilliant," George said flatly. "We can't promise anything, but we'll do our best."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

* * *

It wasn't long afterward that I got another owl. It perched on the windowsill and fluttered its wings, hooting loudly.

"Okay," I said. "I'm coming!" I walked over to the window, but the owl carried no mail. Instead, it delivered a stick to me – short, brown, stumpy, without a single hint of green at its broken end. I turned it over, but it remained just an insignificant stick. I narrowed my eyes at it.

I turned my attention back to the owl, but it was flying through the night sky and landing in a nearby tree. I brought the stick to the main room.

Fred and George were huddled over a blueprint for what looked like a child's toy bear.

I interrupted them. "We have a problem." I held the stick up for them to see. "I just got some strange mail. The owl's hanging around outside, and it doesn't seem to be waiting for a response."

The twins stood up. "Is that a stick?" I nodded. "I think it was more important to track the owl than to communicate with me. "

Fred and George drew their wands and crept to the front door. They gestured for me to stay behind as they slipped out and closed me inside.

I tried to sit on the floral print sofa while I waited, twiddling my thumbs. But before long, I was on my feet, pacing across the rug and onto the oak floors. I turned when the doorknob turned with a click.

Fred and George came in, straight-faced. "We didn't find anything. Looks like the owl's gone now. No one's around either."

"What do we do?"

The twins exchanged looks. "Well, there's no immediate danger..." said Fred.

"And Order members are dropping by tomorrow..."

"So just hang tight until then and we'll ask for their help."

* * *

I sat down in the living room while everyone else was asleep that night, contemplating the problem with my mail. I was being tracked – I could figure out that much, but why?

The obvious answer was that I'd gotten priority over most other wanted people in the country somehow. But how? Through my research?

What should I expect from my tracker anyway? Merely death, or did my tracker want something from me too?

I needed to get my mind off of the suspicious mail Fred and George were going to have the Order look into, so I picked up a copy of _Witch Weekly_ I found on Muriel's coffee table. I didn't particularly care for the gossip within its pages, but it was better than worrying all night.

I was perusing a column about some celebrity divorce when I started rereading and skipping lines. I dropped the magazine and stood up quickly. I couldn't fall asleep – I could only be pulled back to the Gate, and I didn't want that to happen!

But I started to be surrounded by white, despite my efforts to stay in this world. I encountered my emaciated body yet again.

"How many times do I have to tell you Ed isn't coming for us?" I shouted. "Let me go back – I have to figure a way out from the other side."

My body frowned at me, keeping its eyes directed straight into my armor's. It held out its hand. "It's safer for us to wait here."

"Wait?" I cried. "Wait for what? Ed isn't coming to save us."

My body just kept staring me down. It kept the frown on my face. And then I realized something about my body: "You don't believe me, do you? About nobody coming?"

"He's coming," my body said. "He's already come. He'll come for us here, where we'll be whole again."

I shook my head fiercely.

"Why won't you join me?" my body asked, finally lowering its arm.

"No!" I cried, backing away from my body. "No!"

My body sighed. I spotted it starting to sit down as I was thrown back into Muriel's living room. Free of the Gate, I could sit tight and wait for the Order again, maybe ask them for some books on advanced summoning charms.

But I knew the next morning, before the Order arrived, that I could not allow them to help me with my mysterious mail at least: I'd gotten more of it, mail outright threatening this time.

 _Come find me in the woods tonight if you value your brother's life. Come alone, and avoid the Snatchers._

My heart sunk. Was this the cause of Ed's MIA status?

I knew that I would go out into the woods alone that night. I just wished I knew what I was up against. But I did have the small consolation that whoever it was, they weren't on friendly terms with the Snatchers at least.

I closed my eyes and an image sprung to my mind: the image of my older brother lying on a marble slab, in exactly the same pose that Professor Dumbledore had been.

Unfortunately, I had already told the twins about my previous owl, and they still asked the Order for help. The Order had a shabby man called Remus Lupin go out to take a look that afternoon. He took off in a drab brown suit that wouldn't stand out against the trees, having asked me for the stick I'd received.

I quietly asked the other Order members that had come about some books while we were waiting for Lupin: Kingsley, and Lupin's nursing wife, Tonks.

When Lupin returned that afternoon, he carried a scrap of parchment, which he wouldn't let me see. He joined the other Order members in a meeting in Muriel's study.

Muriel was not allowed to join, much to her displeasure, so I made sure to disappear before she could join me waiting for the meeting to get out instead.

I knew it was bad, but I wanted to hear what was going on in the meeting too. At least part of it would concern me and my strange mail, after all.

I crept into Fred and George's stuff and picked up one of their Extendable Ears. I attempted to stick it to the study door, but the door repelled everything that came near it. I frowned, thinking of other ways to get in on the meeting.

I tried the window, but it had the same enchantments on it. I tried eavesdropping through the interior walls, and even the ceiling, but I never gained access to the secret meeting. I was just looking for loose floorboards in the room above the study when Fred came in.

"Alphonse, what are you doing?" I would have gone red if I could.

"I was just … looking for my lost Knut!"

I looked at Fred to see if he'd bought my lie. He cracked a grin. "I'm proud that your mischievous side is coming out right now," he said, "but you'll have to do better than that to eavesdrop on a meeting with trained Aurors in it."

I set the Extendable Ear down. "Is the meeting over?" I asked.

"No, we just need your expertise for a moment." Fred led me down to the study, where the others were huddled around a piece of parchment on Muriel's antique writing desk.

I counted the four Order members who were already in the house, as well as the faces of several Order members looking out from magic mirrors. I recognized the Weasley parents and Professor McGonagall joining the meeting remotely.

Professor McGonagall spoke to me. "I've mentored you in your research long enough to recognize a transmutation circle when I see one. However, I cannot read them. You, on the other hand, were studying alchemical theory for years before you came to Hogwarts. Can you interpret the circle on the parchment?"

I squeezed past the Order members who were shuffling to give me room to stand in front of the writing desk. I looked down at the parchment and the transmutation circle there.

My eyes went wide. I saw the same type of circle on the parchment that Ed used when he tried to bring back Mom!

I turned around and raced outside without a word to the Order. I strongly suspected the parchment I'd been shown was the same one Lupin came back with, which meant that it was set up by the one who was out in the woods, waiting for me. It was an alchemist looking for me. It was an alchemist who had captured my brother.

If Ed had been captured by an alchemist, he could easily defeat his opponent if only I went and freed him. Ed was even familiar enough with alchemy to know what to expect. The situation reminded me of the missions Ed and I used to go on together, but I had to hurry and save my brother.

I heard Order members running after me and calling my name. I payed them no heed. They could get tired from chasing me, but I couldn't tire out from running away. I smirked and dashed into the woods.

The woods were fairly easy to run through at first – a smattering of trees and very little undergrowth, but they soon became a difficult place for me to run. I ran forward anyway, pushing through the vegetation every time I got snagged. I slowly put more distance between myself and my pursuers.

I looked around. I didn't want the Order to stop me from finding the alchemist who'd come after me, but I didn't want to fall into a trap either. I still hadn't found any sign of the transmutation circle, although I'd passed a hunting trap or two.

I lost track of how long I spent running through the forest. Ten, fifteen minutes?

Finally, I saw a single, shadowy shape ahead. "Hey!" I called. "Give me back my brother!"

I didn't notice the spell coming until it had hit me in the side. I was knocked onto my back, immobilized. I was at the mercy of the shadowy shape ahead and its companion who'd jinxed me – a large man with severely crooked teeth.

The man came and stood over me. "What have we caught us tonight?"

The man barely had time to stop at my feet before a blue flash lit up the forest and a fist formed out of the soil. It rushed my attacker, who was knocked out for the count.

I saw a few more curses being fired over my head and trails of spikes and more fists forming out of the ground. I saw human shapes flying every which way.

Finally, I heard a weak, tenor voice call out, "Can you move?"

I couldn't even move enough to answer. I wasn't asked again by whoever it was the voice belonged to anyway. "Al, I..." the voice trailed off and stopped altogether.

I tried to place the voice. It didn't belong to anyone I recognized. It could belong to the alchemist who rescued me, even if all the alchemists I knew were in the woods were hostile or captive. It certainly didn't belong to a member of the Order – the Order hadn't caught up with me quite yet and didn't until a minute or two later.

I heard one of the twins first. One of them was startled by the alchemic alterations to the forest: "What are those earth fists?"

Another Order member noticed the people in the forest. "Those are Snatchers passed out," Lupin said.

Then, the Order found me. "And Alphonse!" the twins called. They knelt next to me. George performed the counter-charm to the immobilization spell, and Fred helped me up.

Fred started to scold me. "Why'd you just run off like that? You knew it was a trap for you, didn't you?"

I looked around. "Where's the alchemist?"

"Alchemist?" George echoed, but I didn't answer in favor of looking among the still bodies on the ground for any sign that one belonged to an alchemist.

I spotted a body at the edge of the battle scene. I couldn't make out details due to the vegetation and the shadows the body lay in, but I could tell that it was small and wore mainly dark-colored clothing.

As I got nearer, I started to make out more details. I could tell that the figure was had long blond hair and wore some sort of black symbol on a red jacket. When I actually got near the figure, I recognized him. "Ed?"

I ran the remaining distance and knelt down beside him. I examined him for major injuries and found a bleeding gash across his chest. I took off my shirt and pressed it against his wound as the Order joined me around my wounded brother.

"He's bleeding," I told the Order. Then quietly, with a smile gracing my lips, I said, "He came to save me."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, it's been a little while since I've updated. Unfortunately, I had some computer issues and had to find another device to use. I'm posting this short chapter now and hope to be able to post more chapters (and hopefully somewhat longer ones) soon. Thanks for reading this fic.**

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

We took Ed back to Muriel's, where the Order examined his wounds. The twins told me that the gash across his chest was caused by Dark Magic. When I heard, I made a fist and slammed it down against the nightstand beside the guest bed we'd laid Ed in.

"If I see those Snatchers again..." I growled.

"Whoa, Alphonse, vengeance isn't like you!" Fred said.

I looked up at him and George. "I wanted to go home after my first year of Hogwarts. I didn't because I wanted to protect the ones I love against magical threats they can't defend themselves against, threats like this!"

"Your brother seems to have done a better job of defending himself than you did," George said.

I turned my head away. "I know _he_ can defend himself against magical opponents, but he shouldn't have had to. I promised myself I'd stay in the magical world to protect him. What if someone who's not trained in combat comes next? I don't even know what Ed's doing out here. Last I heard, he was MIA."

I turned my attention back to my brother. I pushed up the right sleeve just enough to see what was under the jacket and the glove. It was automail.

I sighed. "I sent him potion to regrow his limbs once. Looks like he never took it. I guess we don't have to worry about injuries there though."

I stayed by Ed's side for the next several days. I didn't have any reason I needed to leave, but I did have a lot of questions for Ed.  
Ed's eyelids fluttered open early one morning.

"Thank goodness," I said. "I was really starting to worry about you."

Ed's eyes turned toward me and widened. "Al?"

"We couldn't take you to a hospital without putting you in even more danger, so we've brought you to our hideout for the moment. We fixed you up ourselves."

Ed inhaled deeply. "Al, you idiot!"

"What?"

"I told you to avoid the Snatchers!"

"I was trying to, but I was looking for the suspicious character who had you! I..." I trailed off. I stopped and glared at Ed. "Were you the one who sent me that threatening mail?"

Ed just sulked.

"You're so stupid! Even if you're mad at me about magic or whatever and refuse to let me come home, if you cared enough about me to warn me about the Snatchers, then you didn't have to threaten me."

Ed crossed his arms, wincing. He turned his face toward the wall. "Who says I care about you? I just owe you a debt I need to repay, that's all, for saving me from my own stupidity. I promised I'd get you your body back. You were supposed to be lured into that circle, and I was supposed to take off once I'd gotten your body back. You weren't even supposed to see my face."

I stood up, clenching both fists. "If you weren't injured, I'd hurt you."

I turned to leave, but Ed's voice stopped me at the doorway.

"I talked to Granny Pinako before I left. She's sorry for not offering you a place to stay when you needed to leave school. She wishes she could. To be honest, she was taking my advice not to let you return."

I turned around, but Ed was still glaring at the wall. "I accept Granny's apology, Ed," I said, and then I slammed the door with a satisfying bang.

I stomped downstairs and took a seat next to Muriel. I wholeheartedly agreed with her complaints for once – complaints about her newest house guest: Ed was getting blood on Muriel's sheets when he could be doing that at the hospital instead, Ed's hair was entirely too long to be respectable, and Ed was a worthless, good-for-nothing member of a foreign military.

That afternoon, I saw George coming down from upstairs, where the guest room was. "You wouldn't have seen the Aurors, would you? Your brother doesn't speak very good English."

I blinked. "I didn't know he spoke any English. Maybe it has something to do with that mission his C.O. mentioned in his M.I.A. letter?"

George shrugged. "Have you seen the Aurors?"

"Yeah, Tonks should be out of the loo soon."

George sat on the staircase and waited. Soon, we heard a faint yelp coming from upstairs.

"What was that?" I asked.

George grinned. "We're getting back at your brother a bit for being such a git to you. Don't worry – the biting teacup won't do any real harm to him."

"Oh. What did Ed say to you anyway?"

"We're not sure," George said. "What Ed says will mostly be for the Order to worry about, but he did promise to get your body back. We'll see if we can tell you anything more after we get Tonks to do a translation charm."

At that moment, Tonks came out of the loo, and George got her to follow him upstairs.

They left me downstairs without any further words, and a moment later, I became too curious to just sit around. I crept after them and went to the bedroom door. I didn't have an Extendable Ear on me, but when I pressed my transfigured armor ear against the door, I found that they'd forgotten to charm it.

I heard Fred and George saying something about Ed getting violent with them and them owing him one, whatever that meant.

I couldn't hear anything coming through the door for a moment after that, then one of the twins said, "You still owe us an explanation."

"I'm only telling you because of Al." I pressed my ear closer to the door. "I need help keeping him out of trouble, plus I do owe you for hiding him." My eyes darted sideways to the painted wood door that separated me from the brother who was now claiming to want my safety at least.

"I just got out of a hostage situation back home," Ed said. "I was being manipulated by my government, who took everyone I love hostage. Everyone except Al, 'cause they don't know where he is. Anyway, everyone else had to flee the country, and not even I could tell you were they went. I want Al to stay hidden from my government. I wish he could hide someplace safer, but there is nowhere else for him to go. I can't even tell Al what's going on either – he'd come running to try go get me out of trouble and just end up hostage. It's best if he thinks I hate him so he'll just stay here."

If I had to breathe for air, I'm sure I would have been breathing shallowly at that point, trying to hold on to every word of my brother's story. I clenched a fist by my side. I was thinking about the people who'd been taking captive back home while I was here in England, trying to protect them. Had I stayed for nothing?

I heard Tonks' voice coming through the door. "Al could at least use magic to defend himself if he were in Amestris. Your country doesn't have enough wizards for its own magic school, but it does have enough for a small wizarding government. That government, at the moment, is not so corrupt that it will come arrest your brother if he's discovered."

Ed said nothing for a moment. Then he said softly enough that I almost missed his muffled words, "I was being manipulated into keeping silent about the thing the Amestrian government's going to do to its people. I'll just call it the devil's research."

I frowned. The devil's research? The phrase sounded familiar to me. Where had I heard it before?

"This devil's research guarantees that nobody's safe in Amestris," Ed continued. "If Al stays here in England, then he won't likely face anything worse than death. In Amestris, he'd be caught up in the devil's research that will consume our entire country. His very soul would be in danger."

I remembered then where I'd heard about the devil's research: Ed had written me about it once. I felt the urgent need to talk to my brother.

I threw the door open and ran into the guest bedroom. "The devil's research?" I asked in Amestrian. "As in, a philosopher's stone?"

I attracted the attention of everyone in the room. The Weasley twins and Tonks all turned and looked at me, and I assume that Ed turned his head toward me too, although he was blocked by the line the others made.

"Alphonse," George asked. "What are you doing here?"

I didn't get a chance to answer before Ed called out to me. "Al, I've seen what it's like for souls trapped inside a philosopher's stone: they're in extreme torment, with no way out of it, waiting more than centuries to be used up in a transmutation. Most souls I encountered couldn't even retain their individuality. I don't want that for you. I think even staying in your armor would be better."

I balled my fists. "Ed, what about everyone else? If you would've told me about this and let me help, maybe there'd be no philosopher's stone. You think I want to see Winry and Teacher get trapped in a philosopher's stone?"

Ed sat up. "We've got it handled back home, Alphonse. I just don't need my _little brother_ to come put himself in danger."

I stood in horse position and stared my older brother down in a way that's more typical of him.

He frowned. "You think you can still even beat me, Al? I bet you haven't stayed in practice with martial arts. You spent a little too much time getting sold into magic, didn't you?" My brother climbed out of bed, ignoring his injuries.

Ed rushed me with a punch, and I blocked his attack. At the same time, we both danced around the adults as they drew their wands.

"Stay out of this," I hissed at them, knocking Ed down onto his back. "If you use magic to stop me and Ed, you'll set the Trace off."

Ed rolled on the floor, grabbing my foot as I went to pin him. He threw me off balance. I fell, taking one of the twins – I didn't have time for a good look – down with me.

The other twin nearly managed to grab Ed as he pushed himself to his knees, but he knocked his hands aside. Ed clapped and touched the floor.

The floor rose up and surrounded all Ed's combatants in wooden cages. Ed sat back and pushed on the bandages at his side, wincing. The bandages now had a tint of red that hadn't been there before he'd fought me.

"Your wound reopened, didn't it," I said. "You shouldn't have fought me. Besides, if I can use magic in Amestris, I can handle myself."

Ed kicked my cage in response. "Shut up. You still don't even know what the exchange is, do you?"

"It's not human souls!" I glared at him and gripped the wooden bars in front of me.

Ed relaxed a bit. "You're certain?"

I groaned. "I sent you my notes on magical theory. Magic's channeled by emotion, and how would emotion get a soul?"

"Your emotions live in your own soul. You shouldn't risk using that so lightly."

"But wouldn't using our own soul shorten our lives? We wizards often end up living longer than other humans. We don't shorten our lives by using magic, and we don't shorten the lives of those around us either. We're not exchanging bits of our soul for magical results."

I had to look twice to make sure I wasn't imagining it, but I saw Ed smiling at me. "I'm glad to know you've gotten that far at least."

Ed transmuted the floor back to normal. He stood up and got back in the bed. "Al," he said, "I can't say I'm not angry that you've been using something you don't understand, but I want you to know that I came across a pamphlet the other day. I couldn't read it, but I recognized a diagram of the Gate like the one you discussed with me before you left for Hogwarts. You helped with the pamphlet, didn't you? And you've been doing something good with it if I'm not mistaken. I am a bit proud of your research."

I looked at the sunlight streaming through the slots in the blinds, running upwards to Ed's cheeks. How I wished he could be the same brother I'd spent my childhood looking up to. "Ed?" I called.

Ed sent a smile my way. "I've got my own war to fight, but I want you to stay here and keep helping out with your research, Al. You should regain the strength to do that one soon enough once I get you your body back. And I'll do that as soon as I have the strength for such large-scale alchemy."

I frowned. "What are you going to trade?"

"Something I understand better than you understand magic." Ed rolled to face the wall, onto his uninjured side. "Let me rest."


	10. Chapter 10

**I meant to post this yesterday, but I was distracted from actually doing the final edits and stuff by a poem I was working on for FMA. (I'll post that shortly.) Sorry 'bout that. Thanks for sticking with the story this far. Please enjoy!**

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Chapter 10

* * *

I quietly asked Fred and George to use magic to snoop through what my brother had on his person. I hoped they could find any hint for me as to what my brother was planning to trade away for my body back. What they found was a key to a cheap hotel in London and a travel log.

The travel log quickly found its way into my hands. I flipped through the beginning of the book, and sure enough, on the handwritten, doodled-on pages were the trips I'd gone on with my brother before I started Hogwarts.

I looked up when Fred and George started talking to me. "We looked through your brother's diary already," they said, "and we didn't find any of his plans there. We just saw a lot about places he's been and people he's met."

I shrugged their worry off. "You probably missed something in here, and that's fine. You see, these are most likely his alchemy notes – this book is the one thing he was writing in consistently before I left – and alchemy notes are written in code."

Fred and George were looking at book's worn cover. "All that in code, huh?" They exchanged looks and grinned at each other, as though they were getting some mischievous new idea.

I coughed to get their attention. "Do you think you could keep my brother from noticing his notes are gone until I'm through with them?"

"He should be asleep for the next few days..." said Fred.

George picked up where his brother left off. "...what with recovering from Dark magic and all. But with the treatments we've been getting through owl mail, he should be awake more often than he has been – he should be well enough to get in a few days after all."

Fred nodded and came to the twins' conclusion. "So you've got some time to work on those, but we'll help out where we can."

I returned the twins' grins with a large smile of my own. "Thanks. I'm going to get to work. I'll let you know if there's something the Order would be interested in." I went to Muriel's study and started working out my brother's alchemy notes.

* * *

The notes gave me no answer to what my brother was planning to trade as I studied them over the next day and a half. I was able to decode the text, but if he'd written his plans in his travel log, they were in a deeper layer of coding than I was able to detect.

I did decode the notes well enough to read the terrifying truth of the monsters that were planning on turning Amestris into a philosopher's stone. I also found the horrifying fact that my brother had been selected as a human sacrifice.

I went and checked on my brother after getting that far, but he was asleep. His wounds were being checked on by the Weasley twins, who had become decent at basic medical magic after years of accidents with prototype Skiving Snackboxes.

"Fred, George," I asked quietly, looking at my sleeping brother, "I have something to ask you about defensive items for him..."

I arranged to pay for a couple of the basic defensive items in the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes' inventory with some extra working hours before I read anything else out of my brother's notes.

When I returned to reading, I read something interesting about who my brother had met up with at Central, after he had returned with Winry and a couple new companions from a place called Briggs...

My brother had been reunited with Dad. He said that Dad knew about the human transmutation, and he also said that he and Dad had exchanged stories of the past several years (although quite reluctantly on his part), and that he, Dad, and Colonel Mustang were all able to spend several hours talking about alchemy. Just what they talked about, his notes didn't tell me. I would need to ask him myself.

I took a bowl of stew up to my brother as a silent apology for snooping through his notes. I placed both the bowl and the travel log beside his bed and waited for him to wake up.

"Brother," I asked, using my old term of address once again, "how are you doing?"

Brother smiled. "Your friends say that I'll be well enough to move around by the end of this month." He slowly sat up as he spoke. "I'll be able to get your body back soon, Al. I think we can aim for around May 2nd."

"Yeah," I said quietly, reaching toward the red bowl filled with stew. "About that – I really am worried about what you're planning to trade. I might have gone through your things. Your alchemy notes too."

I offered the glass bowl to Brother. I gazed at him.

Brother sighed. "I suppose that's the same as the problem I have with your magic: I have no clue what you're trading either." He took the bowl. "I guess I can't blame you for being worried."

"Then you'll tell me?"

Brother looked at me for a long moment. "You're not going to like it, Al, but I'll be okay without what I'm trading."

I kept looking at Brother until he finally caved.

"Al, I'm going to trade my Gate to get your body back. I don't really need alchemy anyways."

"You're going to _what?"_

"I'll be fine without alchemy. I'll just live like everyone else. Anyway, I'm the one to blame for you not having your body, so don't you dare feel bad about what I'm giving up."

If I could cry, I'm sure angry tears would have seeped into my eyes. I couldn't cry, but I could clench both my hands into fists and shout at Brother. "You're so stupid! What about those monsters who are going to come after you as a human sacrifice? You're going to have to fight them." I glared downward at Brother. "I don't want you dead."

Brother made his own fist and placed it against my armor chest. "I'm working with the colonel and the others – even our old man – to bring down the Homunculi and stop our country from being turned into a philosopher's stone. We're pretty sure their transmutation circle would fail if they mistakenly tried to sacrifice even one person who can't actually perform alchemy, so the others promised to cover me once I trade my Gate."

"Then let me help too!"

Brother shook his head. "We've learned when the Homunculi are going to try to make the stone, and that day's only in a few months. I think you're going to need more time than that to recover: I've seen what state your body's in."

My fists shook at my sides. "Brother, I'm going to send you with some defensive items. At least let me help that way."

Brother grinned and pulled his fist away from me with one final tap on my shoulder. "Al, we're going to defeat those guys in Amestris, and then you'll get to come home all you want. I'll even get you a cat. I promise."

I left Brother with his food, but I gave him one last look before I stepped into the rose-painted hall. "You'd better make it out alive."

* * *

I tried to get more details out of Brother through the end of April as he was recovering. I'd only managed to learn a couple things. One was that Colonel Mustang was also in on Brother's trick of kidnapping himself to lure me out into a human transmutation circle – that he'd written me a letter for the purpose of making Brother's kidnapping a more realistic possibility. I also learned that the colonel had also helped convinced our friends and family to leave Amestris.

I was frustrated that Brother was still keeping things from me, so I kept my distance from him. I did the extra hours I'd promised Fred and George, I continued to spend my time helping counter the Ministry's propaganda, and I started to brush up on my hand-to-hand combat skills. It wasn't hard to get back in the swing of it with my transfigured armor body.

Meanwhile, Brother did recover from his magical wounds with the Order's help. He was well enough to come down to lunch the first of May, where the others and I were all sitting around Muriel's table, ignoring her snoring softly in a nearby armchair. "Al," he said, though he did not look at me. "I'm on track to get you your body back tomorrow morning. And then I can't stay – I've got to go back to Amestris to make sure of something before the Promised Day."

I looked up from a fake wand I was wrapping for one of Fred and George's customers. "We'll need more packing paper soon," I said to the twins, ignoring Brother.

Brother ate the rest of his meal in silence. When he got up from the table, he stood next to me for a moment, holding dirty dishes in his hands. "Al," he said. "I'm not going to be able to get or send mail for a while, not until after the others and I put a stop to what's going on in our country. But I'll mail you again when its safe. Look forward to it."

I nodded, but I said nothing to him as he left the room. I finished wrapping orders for the twins' products before slipping off to Muriel's study.

I reached for my research folder, which now also housed my drafts for further science-based fliers for the magical world, when a pang shot through my chest. I picked my folder up and turned to the back, where I still housed my photo of me and Brother.

I took it out. "You're leaving me tomorrow, aren't you? And I might never get to see you again."

I moved my picture to the front of the folder and carried my entire folder up the seven stairs and into the guest bedroom.

"Brother?" I called, cracking the door open.

Brother was lying on top of his covers, staring at the ceiling, but he turned my way and sat up when I called to him. "Yeah?"

I entered, clutching my folder to my chest. "If you're up for it, I was wondering if you'd like to talk alchemy? Just like old times."

"Yeah." Brother smiled and patted a spot next to him on the bed. That was all the invitation I needed to join him.

* * *

The two of us talked for hours. Our conversation veered from alchemy to reminiscing of old times. We then moved on to swapping stories of all the dumb things that had happened to us since the last time we'd really talked. I heard my brother laugh again for the first time since I left, and I did my fair share of laughing myself. We didn't care that it was already late by the time Brother started telling me of the welcome he'd had in Briggs.

"...and so General Armstrong tore up the major's letter and just locked me in a cell. She released me eventually, but still! And the automail mechanic there said my automail had to be changed out for a northern style, or I'd get frostbite from having the metal against my stumps."

I shuddered. "How did Sensei survive that mountain?"

"No clue." Brother plopped backward, lying the top half of his body across the width of the bed.

He cradled his head in his arms. "Hey, Al? Speaking of Sensei, who's the scariest teacher at that magic school of yours?"

"Professor Snape," I said tensely. "Everyone always said he was evil, and then he went and killed our headmaster last year. He..."

I was interrupted by a commotion downstairs.

"That's enough!" one of the twins called. "We don't have to grab everything to unleash on unsuspecting Death Eaters. We've just got to get Ginny and get to the fighting."

I sprang to my feet and across the room in a jiffy. Brother followed behind me as I ran down the staircase. We found Fred and George stuffing their pockets with some of the nastier of their products.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Hogwarts is under attack," Fred said. "You two just stay here. We'll be back when it's over." He and George raised their wands and Disapparated with a loud crack.

My eyes widened. "Hogwarts?"

There was the sound of metal on metal as Brother put his automail hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry about your school."

I turned around and looked Brother in the eyes. "I've still got friends there. I've got to go help them."

Tossing Brother's hand off my shoulder, I ran into Muriel's study and opened the middle drawer of her writing desk. I slid my hand past all the parchment lying within and gripped it around a walnut wand and ran past Brother into the living room.

I stopped by the mantle and reached for a jar of shiny powder kept sealed under a cushioned lid.

"Al?" came Brother's voice from behind me. "If you're going to help, then so am I. Just like old times."

I nodded. "You've got it." I removed a pinch of the Floo Powder and offered the jar to Brother.

"You'll need some of this."

I stepped closer to the fire. "We'll go to my old common room. We toss this into the fire and say _Gryffindor common room_. Once the flame's turned green, we step in. Got it?"

"Are you serious?" Brother asked. "How in the world would that work, Al?"

I sent Brother a quick smile before tossing the Floo Powder into the flames. "Gryffindor common room!" I cried, and then I jumped through. I landed on my feet on the floor of the red-and-gold common room I had grown accustomed to during my years of school.

I moved before I could be in Brother's way a moment later, when he'd landed where I'd been.

"You made it!" I cried. "Come on!" I ran out of the Fat Lady's portrait and into the halls, Brother trailing behind me.

I heard Brother gasp behind me. I looked back and saw that he was gaping at various magical things. A nearby moving portrait in particular drew his attention.

"Young man," the occupant asked, "don't you know it's rude to stare?"

Brother shook his head and looked away from the portrait. He turned his head toward me actually.

"Brother," I asked, "are you really okay to fight? There are going to be a lot of things here you aren't used to."

"Won't happen again," he said, jogging to catch up with me. "But is there anything about your school itself I should be aware of?"

"Well, I know it has a few tricks against invaders. I think the biggest thing you should beware of are the staircases – they move, and some of the steps are fake." I led Brother down the staircases, toward the main floor, where I thought most of the battle would be. I made sure to point out the trick steps for him in advance.

We saw large numbers of people on our way, all headed downstairs. Most people we saw were students, but we also saw members of the Order of the Phoenix as we got closer to the Great Hall. Brother and I made sure to remain hidden in the crowd of Hogwarts students as we passed them, following my housemates to our table.

We watched as Professor McGonagall took charge of the assembly and spoke about how Hogwarts was going to evacuate.

"Al." Brother's voice entered my ear in a whisper. "They're going to get your friends out of here. We don't have to stay and fight. As much as I hate to admit it, you're not fully trained, and I'm not back to one-hundred percent either. Let's just go and get you your body back."

I made a fist. "No."

"Al?"

"No, this isn't just about this battle. I do have many friends at this school, but I also have many that are in hiding, like me. None of us are safe until the wizard behind it all is dead, and I get a feeling tonight might be our chance to defeat them."

I saw Brother clapping his hand on my shoulder again out the corner of my eye. He nodded when I turned my head toward him slightly, a dead-serious look on his face followed by a confident smirk. "We'll get them." I could barely hear Brother's words in the sea of whispers surrounding the Gryffindor table that broke out as Harry Potter passed, glancing up and down the table as though he was looking for someone, probably Ron and Hermione.

Then the assembly was interrupted by a cruel voice: "I know that you are preparing to fight."

Even as screams broke out, I clutched Brother's arm. "That must be _him_. It's time."

Then came the demand came that the school hand over Harry Potter, and a Slytherin student pointed Harry out and demanded we turn him over as well. As Brother and I joined the majority of the student body in forming a human barricade between her and the Boy-Who-Lived, Brother whispered, "What's so important about that boy anyway?"

"There's some prophesy that he's destined to take down the evil wizard out there. I don't really understand it myself, but Harry has ended up fighting that guy a lot and has become a symbol of hope for wizards. If he gets killed, I bet you a lot of people are just going to give up."

Brother and I slipped behind as Gryffindor's turn came to be evacuated. We were caught by Professor McGonagall. "Misters Elric! Neither of you are of age. You can't stay here."

Brother stood at his full, diminutive height and met her in the eyes. "Our country had no problem with us fighting when we were even younger than this. I'm a soldier, so I can help. And Al, he's a good fighter. He used to come on military missions with me all the time."

I too met my professor's eyes. "I may not be a fully trained wizard, but I was fully trained in martial arts. Besides, with my body the way it is, there are several ways I'm not going to die in battle. We're staying whether you like it or not."

Brother grabbed my wrist and pulled me off. "Come on, Al. I saw your two red-headed friends go this way!"

The two of us ran toward the entrance hall, where people were putting up all sorts of barriers against the Death Eaters outside the castle. Brother smirked. "Al, if they break through, can you handle the defense for the both of us? I can take the offense."

"Yeah." I held my wand at the ready and stood right beside Brother.

Brother clapped and touched Hogwarts' stone floor. He started the once-familiar blue lights of an alchemical reaction, which danced across the floor and started pulling the stones up into a solid barrier between our fighters and the doorway. Brother only left openings in the form of notches for a few of our number to send spells flying out of - much larger on our end than on the Death Eaters' end.

The other fighters whispered about what they thought was an unusual form of magic and turned to look at Brother and me. Brother found Fred and George among the other fighters and waved, grinning.

The twins grinned back. "We thought we told you to stay behind," Fred called.

"But since you're here, think you could help us set up more nasty surprises?" called George.

Brother gestured to the barricade he'd transmuted. "Well, there's a deep pit on the other side of that wall where I got the stone from. Maybe you could fill that with something."

We all set up a few nasty surprises. Brother transmuted rows of sharp spikes inside the pit he'd created while the Weasley twins and I used our wands to cover the remaining stretch of stone floor in on the other side of the pit with a thin layer of one of their prank products.

Another of our fighters, Professor Sprout, summoned pots of nasty-looking plants, many of which I didn't recognize. Those were set up to shower down on the Death Eaters when they came in for us.

Brother started transmuting some alternative weapons for anyone who desired them, proudly swing around his own iron spear decorated with snakes and skulls. He spent the rest of our preparation time making sure everyone was armed.

But before long, the short time allotted to Hogwarts to hand over Harry Potter was up and the Death Eaters were coming for us. Brother took me off to one of the sides of his barricade and transmuted a peephole for himself. I used my Transfigurations knowledge to make another of the notches in the wall for me to fire spells through, down where Brother and I were laying on our bellies.

We heard the doors groan in protest as they were hit with something from the outside. I trained my wand through my notch in anticipation of the intruders.


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks everybody for your support of this story. We are now reaching the end. In fact, after this chapter is only the epilogue. I wish you a pleasurable reading experience!**

* * *

Chapter 11

* * *

The doors let the Death Eaters in with a bang. The first Death Eaters ran in and slipped on the floor. One slid into Brother's pit, where their cloak was snagged on the waiting spikes. The Death Eater squirmed, trying to send curses at anyone on my side.

I almost grinned to myself as other Death Eaters were showered with the plants from the greenhouses. They wrestled with angry vegetation, some bursting out in nasty boils or getting covered with pus.

Then the Death Eaters started getting hit or trapped by hands being molded out of the floor. One Death Eater looked around from within the hand they were trapped in, and their eyes snapped to mine and Brother's position as the light from yet another one of Brother's transmutations escaped through the notch and peephole near us.

But then the hand restraining that Death Eater exploded into flying pieces of stone. The Death Eater immediately raised their wand toward our section of wall.

"PROTEGO!" I cried.

I managed to send the incoming red stream of light bouncing off my shield charm, making it hit the remnants of one of Hogwarts' main doors instead. The door cracked, raining down a few splintery chunks of wood onto our enemies.

Brother tried to capture the Death Eater who'd broken free with another one of his stone fists, but the Death Eater blasted it to smithereens even as it was forming. Then the Death Eater turned their wand on the wall we were hiding behind.

BOOM!

Brother's wall lost a section from the spell's blast, forcing people to try to scramble out of the way. Some smaller chunks of debris rained down on Brother and I as well.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" I caught one of the larger chunks before it could hit George with my wand and flung it away.

I started to push myself to my feet. "The wall isn't going to hold up!" Indeed, Brother's wall was being threatened by more Death Eaters who'd gotten free of the plants or stone fists they'd been struggling with.

"Better take it down now then," Brother said, clapping his hands together and placing them on the wall itself. The wall exploded outward, giving Brother time to grab his spear and push himself to his feet. He didn't try to find us new shelter, and I followed his lead.

I aimed my wand at the first Death Eater I saw after the explosion. "Expelliarmus!" I didn't see if it made contact or not because Brother pulled me out of the way of a red charm that ended up flying past my ear.

"Al," he growled, "cover me!" Brother pointed his spear forward and glared at the Death Eaters, as though daring them to come at us from across his pit of spikes. He ran forward, using his automail leg to use one of his spikes whose tip had already come off sometime in the battle to fling himself the rest of the way across the pit and toward one of the Death Eaters. Brother can be reckless at times, but at the moment it didn't matter which side of the pit he was on: he was just one of the many fighters from either side who were already finding their way across the pit to combat the enemy.

Brother disappeared in all the fighting that was going on as we were pushed backwards into the halls. I'd learned a few combative spells from Harry Potter, but I wasn't really a fully trained wizard or anything, so I ended up finding a place to hide behind some rubble and taking quick shots at nearby Death Eaters.

A rather fat Death Eater found my hiding place and came to finish me off, but luckily I was saved by a redhead that seemed familiar from somewhere, when the redhead stunned the Death Eater. Afterwards, the redhead turned and started dueling another figure instead. "Hello, Minister." He disappeared into the fray someplace near Fred and George, leaving me in a relatively safe spot at the moment.

I took the opportunity to peek out and scan for Brother, but I could only keep fighting with everyone else.

We fought until the battle came to a cease-fire, when Voldemort announced that Harry Potter was to surrender himself within an hour. As Voldemort's forces withdrew from the castle, I took the chance to look for Brother again. I looked among the living. I also looked among the still forms scattered across the floors, hoping that I wouldn't find him there.

"Al!" a voice called.

I turned, and there was Brother, something glistening in his eyes.

"Brother? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Al. I took some shrapnel, but nothing I can't handle." Brother put his arms around my fake body and pulled me into a hug. "Al, I'm sorry."

I frowned, trying to ignore the knot seeming to form in my non-existent stomach. "What happened?"

"Those twins we were staying with - one of them won't be going home again. I'm sorry. I wish we could do more than this."

If I could shed tears, I'm sure they would have threatened to choke me, but in my body that was truly nothing more than transfigured armor, I had to show my grief without them; I fell forward into Brother, cursing the war for separating families. And though I couldn't feel it, I'm sure Brother hugged me as tenderly as he could. He whispered words of reassurance that many more people were alive because of my fallen friend, as Brother was sure he must have wished.

Brother and I remained as we were until Voldemort's voice invaded the Hogwarts' walls once again, announcing the death of one Harry Potter. "You know," Brother whispered, "I don't really believe that creep when he says he'll spare us if we surrender."

I nodded. "What do we do?"

Brother fixed his golden eyes on me. "It's your choice, Al: do you want to get out of here to someplace safer or stay and fight with everyone's hero dead?"

My eyes trailed down the destroyed hallways toward where we both knew the entryway lay accessible as air. "It's not safe anywhere, really, but maybe if we can show everyone there's still hope, we may have a chance at winning this war yet."

Brother nodded. "Right. Looks like everyone else is going outside to see, but where would be the best place for us to go?"

"Also outside." I joined the crowd to leave the castle, and Brother stuck right behind me. We ended up in the middle of the crowd, from which we saw Harry Potter indeed lying limp.

We didn't really listen to Voldemort as he gave us a demoralizing speech about Harry and his death. I can't say for sure what everyone else was thinking during that time, but Brother and I were thinking about strategy instead, whispering plans to each other.

"We could take out their leader in return - I mean, it's not like he's immortal or anything, is he?" Brother suggested.

I frowned. "Brother, he is."

Brother paused for a moment. He hummed, as though thinking of a new plan. "Hey, what if we…." Brother started to suggest another strategy, but he was roared out by a suddenly shouting crowd.

Out of the crowd had come a seventh-year Gryffindor I recognized as Neville Longbottom, who had stepped forward to challenge Voldemort. The corners of my lips crept upward. "Maybe not everyone's given up hope after all."

It wasn't long after that we started fighting again. Brother and I managed to stick together this time; fighting back-to-back and rotating to face our opponents, we held our ground. Piles of rubble from Brother's transmutations built up around us as I blocked curse after curse headed our way.

We faltered only for a moment when we heard shouts that Harry Potter was alive after all. "But he was dead, wasn't he?" Brother asked. "People don't come back from the dead; it's impossible." He added on in a weaker voice, "Isn't it, Al?"

"He must not have really been dead. Even with magic…." Here I shouted in surprise: a curse had slipped past my notice and hit my left arm. Being armor, I couldn't feel any pain, but I could watch what had looked like a normal arm become more metallic and start dripping onto the grass in a liquid form.

"Al?"

I shook my head, although Brother couldn't have seen me with the way we were standing to fight. "It's nothing."

"Get down!" But Brother didn't merely shout: he pushed me over with his own body as well. We had just hit the grass when Brother clapped and transmuted a dome of earth over us, with just one exit we could crawl out of. Through the exit, I could now see the green jet of light that had gone streaming over our heads and was now about to hit Tonks, who was fighting alongside her husband.

Tonks fell immediately. Her husband roared and came to charge past us. Without a word to Brother, I darted out and turned to face the direction Lupin was charging. I reacted immediately to seeing another green jet of light flying from the raised wand of one of Voldemort's black-robed fighters, running toward Lupin and knocking him to the ground.

I got off of the man quickly and rolled to the side of some red curse as Brother came to our aid. Brother transmuted a fist out of the earth that grabbed our opponent and held him fast. "I made sure to get the wand this time," he said.

We turned toward a rather bright, fiery reaction that had caught our attention and saw that Harry Potter and Voldemort were dueling. The two made the reaction grew a bit stronger and then it turned on Voldemort. It hit him, and just like that, his corpse hit the ground for all of us to see.

"Is it over?" I asked as everyone cheered.

Brother looked around and snorted. "Looks like the rest of that guy's gang are out of here." Where Brother was looking, there were several black shapes attempting to flee through the Forbidden Forest, some narrowly avoiding arrows from the local centaurs and other such hazards. Our side was still going after the survivors.

I agreed with Brother, my voice coming out a bit on the flat side.

Brother let out a yawn, and I couldn't blame him - if I needed to sleep, I would have been exhausted after all these hours of fighting too. But Brother didn't seem to be considering closing his eyes just yet. "Al," he said, "You should be a lot safer in England now, right?"

"Safe as anywhere else." I pocketed my wand and put my remaining hand on Brother's left shoulder. "A safe place for you to get some sleep too."

"Al…." Brother's voice trailed off, but he looked at my melted arm pointedly.

"I'll be fine without an arm for a bit. Let's just find someplace for you to sleep before you try to get my body back from the Gate - if you're still up for that."

Brother nodded. "I wasn't injured too badly this time. I should be fine by the time I get back to Amestris." He paused. "But I guess we could wait a bit longer. Just, could we get away from this crazy school first? I still don't like magic."

"Back to Muriel's it is then."

* * *

Brother slept for ten hours after the battle we'd fought in. When he woke up again, he had some bags under his eyes, but he said that he was ready to get my body back.

I followed Brother out into the woods by the light of the late afternoon sun, bringing my wand along just in case we ran into any leftover Snatchers. Brother lead me to a clearing and showed me the transmutation circle he'd hidden in it. We talked a bit as he touched it up, and I was all too aware that this might be the last time I'd ever get a chance to talk to my brother.

I knelt next to Brother as he smoothed out a portion of the array that had been smudge by some deer tracks. "Brother, are you sure this is alright?" I meant to ask about his giving up his alchemy, but that wasn't the way he took it.

"I'm confident in my theory, but you're right. You should at least check everything over before we step foot in this thing. Things shouldn't just work by putting your blind trust in them."

I looked at him. "Are you talking about magic?"

Brother was quiet as he finished patching up the last few lines of the array. "I just don't want you to get hurt because you didn't understand the consequences. We've come to enough harm that way."

I gently placed my hand on Brother's human shoulder. "I may not understand how everything works, but even in magic, I don't just put my blind trust in things. I had to learn for myself that magic does work without serious consequences, and even now, I want to learn how it works where I can."

Brother rolled his eyes.

I groaned. "I wrote a letter that I'd thought might have upset you, when I wrote that magic is unexplainable."

Brother nodded. "Yeah, Al."

"What I meant back then was that I don't think we have enough time in one lifetime to figure out how everything works. I never meant that there were things with no explanation." I turned my touching Brother's shoulder into more of a man-hug by leaning forward so my arm was touching Brother's back.

Brother gazed up at the sky and then over at me, looking as though he was thinking about my words. "I really hope so," he said. "It's just that you trust magic so much more than I do."

Sending Brother a smile, I got up and circled around the array. I stopped here and there to study some of the runes, but eventually I finished and looked over to Brother. "Everything looks like it's drawn properly, but are you sure it's okay to trade your Gate?"

Brother grinned. "Exactly what I'll ask for is passage out for the both of us in exchange for the Gate that will close behind us. Should be equal value, right?"

I went quiet. "In order for mankind to gain anything, something of equal value must be sacrificed first. Wouldn't you have to give up your Gate before you could get me back? How are we going to get out?"

Brother winced. "There is something else I'm trading in exchange for the timing."

"What are you planning to trade?"

Brother stood up. Ignoring my question, he carefully placed his steps to the center of the circle and stood to the edge of the innermost shape in the array. Then he held out his human arm to me. "Come on, Al. We're going to get your body back."

I took a step back. "What are you planning to trade?"

Brother lowered his arm. "Al, we're going to the gate together, and then we're coming back together. I promise. And we're not going to harm anyone else in the process either."

I hesitated.

Brother sought out my eyes. "Please trust me."

I nodded. Then I carefully joined Brother in the center of the circle.

Brother grabbed my arm and knelt down to activate the array. Immediately, the gate opened, and black arms came out to grab us. We stayed together this time.

Brother and I were pulled to the white space before a Gate of Truth.

"Back again, Mr. Alchemist?" came a myriad of voices from behind us. "And I see you brought your brother with you."

Brother and I turned around. There stood the being we knew as Truth.

"We came to get Al's body back," Brother said to Truth.

Truth grinned. "You can't get something for nothing. I suppose you came to trade your life?"

Brother chuckled. He gestured toward the towering stone gate behind us. "This ought to be enough, right? And I'll let you have a portion of my life force if you let me and Al out before you take it."

I turned my head toward Brother. "No, you can't!"

Brother glanced toward me, smiling. "I'm not trading my whole life, just a portion of my it. Got the idea from our old man, whether he likes it or not. But it's not like I'm trading it lightly, Al. I couldn't have worried if you were doing the same thing with magic if I was."

Meanwhile, the Truth tilted its head. "Your Gate of Truth? If you trade that, you'll never do alchemy again."

"Like I need it to be happy. There are people waiting for me to come back who love me, right? Al too."

Truth laughed. "Congratulations, you're on the right track!"

I saw Brother stiffen out of the corner of my eye. "On the right track? You mean you refuse?"

"I can only take payments in advance. I can't take your Gate after you leave, even if you give me part of your soul."

Brother continued to plead with Truth, but I tuned their argument out, looking at the long, wooden wand in my hand instead. I felt an idea forming….

"Is there another way out of this realm?" I asked, interrupting whatever Brother was going to say next.

"Not normally," said Truth, "but your idea would certainly work." Truth turned to my brother. "What do you say, Mr. Alchemist: your Gate for your brother, and your brother gets you out?"

Brother's eyes met mine.

"Trust me?" I asked, holding up my wand. "I haven't done it before, but I think I can pull it off."

Brother's mouth opened and he stared at me mutely for a moment. He closed his mouth and his eyes and shook his head gently. "Doesn't matter right now I guess." He turned to Truth. "We have a deal."

With a grin, Truth pointed to Brother's Gate, and it dissolved. The body I was in dissolved as well, and a moment later, I was back inside a human body.

I stumbled, but a warm, strong, arm was wrapped around me and helped me stay on my feet. Brother was smiling at me. "Are we free to go?" I asked.

"Truth's gone now, but that was the deal." Brother slipped something long, smooth and round into my hand. It was my wand. "Whenever you're ready, Al."

I leaned in close and touched my wand to Brother's tunic. "Portus."

Brother and I zipped off into a swirling vortex and were deposited onto the transmutation circle Brother made to get us to the Gate. I now had a body that could enjoy the soft green grass growing across the forest floor, but I didn't have the time to; after we returned, I was quickly overtaken by blackness.

* * *

I woke up in a cushy bed and almost couldn't find the will to open my eyes just yet, but I had to know if Brother was alright. I glanced around and found out that I was in some sort of hospital, and Brother was nowhere in sight.

I saw plenty of people, but they were all either patients like me or witches and wizards running around in lime green robes. I watched them bustle about with potions and examining small children with their wands. I fixed my eyes on one nearby who was writing something on a clipboard. "Excuse me."

The woman looked up. "Alphonse Elric. Good to see you're awake."

She gestured to another person in the lime green robes, who rushed over to me with a bottle of potion. "You're going to have to go back to sleep."

I nodded, scowling at the sight of the lumpy purple potion being poured out for me. I watched the Healer, as I later found out she was called, write something else on her clipboard. "Where's Brother?"

"Ah, yes. I was told to tell you when you wake up that he's gone back to your home country and did get the package from your friend George Weasley. Your brother's confirmed your continued enrollment at Hogwarts next year and expects to get in touch with you soon."

I frowned and stared up at all the tiny dots smattered across the ceiling, only to have the glass of purple potion shoved in my face. I sniffed it and was surprised to find I could still identify the scent after all my years without a body: the potion smelled like lavender.

"Smells like flowers," I mumbled before I drank the thing and went back to sleep.

* * *

I spent all summer in recovery at St. Mungo's. When I had the strength to write home, I did. I got plenty of updates from Granny Pinako on things back in Risembool, but I never did hear how Brother was doing, although he was back to sending me an owl once in a while again.

I was prepared to drop out of my remedial fifth year to go looking for Brother when he sent me the news to say that Amestris was saved and it was safe to enter the country again. He said he looked forward to having me home for break.

I smiled, not fighting the tears in my eyes as I neatly folded the letter and put it next to the picture I had of me and Brother.

* * *

That December, I stepped onto Platform 9¾, eyes bright as I scanned the crowd for someone waiting for me for the first time. I found Brother quickly although he had nothing on the rest of the crowd in terms of height because he stood out in his bright red coat.

To my suprise, Granny Pinako and Winry stood there with him. "Brother! Winry! Granny Pinako!" I rushed over to them and threw my arms around the three of them. "Oh, thank you, thank you."

Brother wrapped his arms around me in return. "I've missed you."

"Yeah, me too." I looked at Granny Pinako and Winry. "All of you."

Granny Pinako smiled. "Just wait until you see what I've talked Ed into."

I pulled back from my embrace and met Brother's eyes. He just grinned. "It's a surprise. Let's get going."

And so, the four of us loaded my things into a taxi and we drove off. We headed away from King's Cross Station and pulled up in front of a studio apartment.

I groaned. "Brother, I am not spending another summer in England."

Brother casually lifted my trunk out of the trunk with his automail arm and set it on the cement. "Well," he said, "you can go back to Amestris if you want, but I won't be there. I decided that since I can't do alchemy anymore, I'm going to learn English here in London, and then maybe I'll study biochemistry or something."

He pulled my owl cage out of the trunk as well. "What are your plans for after Hogwarts, Al? There's not much of a wizarding world back in Amestris – that's why you had to travel all the way out here for school. You're probably staying in England, right?"

I looked over at Granny Pinako and Winry. "Even when I become of age, I would have to have special clearance to use magic in front of anyone but you back home, Brother, but I still want to help everyone out with magic like you did with alchemy. I don't know exactly what I want to do after Hogwarts, but I know that I want to find a way to build bridges between the wizarding world and everyone else so that I can use what I've learned to help everyone out someday."

Brother had a strange look on his face, as though he were thinking about something deep and wasn't sure if he liked where his thoughts were leading him or not. He quietly handed me my owl and carried my trunk into his apartment himself, setting it down next to a pair of bunk beds.

He was very quiet the rest of the day, speaking only one word at a time. Brother kept sending glances my way and opening his mouth as though he wanted to say something. I smiled at him, but I didn't push him to speak. I figured he'd say what he wanted to say when he was ready.

"Al," he said from the top bunk as we settled into bed that night, "it really is great having you back. Even if you're different now."

"I'm just glad to be allowed back."

Brother's voice went quieter. "I see."

"We might not see eye to eye in everything, but we do love each other, don't we? And you've always been trying to do what's best for me. I can appreciate that."

"Yeah." Brother sounded more confident in that last statement than in anything he'd said all day. "Good night, Al."

I couldn't see Brother's face, but I'm certain that a smile graced both our faces as I bid him good night and the two of us fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, Brother was at the table, reading a book. I stretched and joined him for breakfast.

I was surprised to see that the book he was reading was actually one of my History of Magic textbooks. "Brother?"

But of course, once Brother's absorbed in a book, it takes a lot to get his attention away from it. I ate my eggs, peeking behind the book to see Brother's scowl. I looked away and picked at my food instead until Brother finally closed the book.

I slouched over where I was playing with my eggs as I looked up. "Brother?"

Brother turned his gaze toward me. He grinned his goofy smile and I relaxed. "Al," he said, "I've been doing some thinking. What you said a couple months ago about magic having an explanation but us not having enough time to learn all of it makes a lot of sense."

My lips parted and I nearly dropped my fork.

"It's sad that your abilities have been hidden from the rest of the world for centuries because people couldn't work out their differences, but I was thinking that maybe your research on magic and the Gate could help build that bridge you wanted to build."

"You think so?"

Brother nodded. "It's like alchemy: to build a bridge, you first have to understand what you're working with. In this case, wizards, Muggles, and their cultures. Then you need to deconstruct the structures you need to and reconstruct them into what you want – you'll need politicians' help with that, but you'll need to use your research to convince them first. So you see, your research is part of the understanding step. Do you think you'll continue?"

I grinned and straightened up. "Of course."

"Al, do you think I could help with your research?"

I stared at Brother, who was keeping his gaze steady on me. It must have seemed to him like an eternity later, although it was really just a few seconds, that I flung myself forward, wrapping my arms around him.

"Research together? It will be just like old times. Of course you can be my research partner."

A thought occurring to me, my eyes widened, my jaw slacked, and I pulled away. "Brother, do your biochemistry studies have anything to do with researching the Gate? You were already thinking about this when you moved up here, weren't you?"

Brother leaned back in his chair. "Granny Pinako said she wanted to see us close again, and she wasn't the only one. I thought that we'd have to work on something we could both do, that we'd both enjoy. I can't do magic, but I can research it like you did with alchemy. If you're going to do magic, the least I can do is give it a chance."

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End Part II


	12. Chapter 12

**I had a lot of fun writing this fic, and I'm glad others were able to enjoy the story too. The last chapter pretty much wrapped things up, but here's the promised epilogue.**

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Epilogue: 3 Years Later

I stepped away from one of mine and Brother's hovering posters as I came to stand beside my Brother. We stood in a small conference room, wearing matching robes, our research and our next proposal about to be judged by a dozen witches and wizards, sitting at a long, rectangular table. They were the Ministry's less-mysterious research department: the Department of Discoveries.

The Department of Discoveries wore, creepily enough, white robes with shadowy black arms spiraling across their tops, like those that had once threatened to tear my brother away from me. I don't think their robes had anything to do with the Gate though: no, they'd had a hard enough time wrapping their heads around the concept of the Gate as it was. And instead of letting them tear Brother and I apart, Brother and I were determined to face them together for our dream of connecting our worlds.

I glanced over at Brother to see if he had anything else he'd like to add onto the presentation portion of our meeting. When Brother smiled and nodded, I used my wand to stack our hovering posters in a neat pile and put them back in the plain black briefcase we'd brought them in.

Posters away, Brother spoke to the Department of Discoveries. "That brings us to our question-and-answer session."

Immediately, a fat wizard with a tiny nose raised his voice. "You claim that everyone, even Muggles, has a gateway to power. Hogwash! If that were so, there would be no Muggles, no Squibs, would there?"

I shook my head. "It's not having power, it's which power source you're born with."

"But why would the power sources be different? Stop wasting our time with this nonsense! I say that we kick you out of this conference right now."

I opened my mouth to answer, but what I started to say was drowned out, even to my ears, by Brother's growl. "It's clear you don't fully understand the Gate," he said, "and neither do we, but isn't science about figuring out how things work? That's the way the world works, and sometimes you just have to trust in something before you can try to understand it – like magic. Al and I have personal experience with the Gate, so we know it's real; we just want to understand it, and we've figured out that it will help us understand magic better too."

I nodded, placing my wand in the pocket of my navy-blue dress robe before adding in my two bits. "If you're concerned about why there's a difference in power if everyone has a Gate, let me remind you of what we proposed to continue our research: we've got a project in mind to test a couple things that could be lining the Gate up differently between Muggles and wizards. If your department chooses to fund our project, you may get your answer when we present those findings. In the meantime, you can have your own researchers look into the Gate themselves – although there is plenty of research on it already in the Muggle world."

The fat wizard looked angry, but his fellows wore varied expressions as several whispered conversations broke out among them. I glanced around at all the faces in the room, Brother's last of all.

Brother had his eyes on me.

I smiled. "Brother, thanks."


End file.
